Let your imagination make space for caribou
The Caribou Art Project brings people into the herd, hoping we will stand together to help the caribou continue.
The exhibition is in the Public Gallery at the Yukon Arts Centre in Whitehorse. Envisioned by Lianne Marie Leda Charlie of Tagé Cho Hudän, one of the Northern Tutchone-speaking People of the Yukon, its creation was co-led with Nicolas Hyatt.
As you walk into the space, you encounter 32 caribou rendered in thick plywood and plexiglass, with wood-encased speakers at some of their hooves. Patrick Matheson’s lighting design projects antler shadows on the wall, evoking a feeling of a larger herd.
A carefully-crafted sound piece also inhabits the space, balancing storytelling with time to absorb. Also, some of the speakers are equipped with motion detectors, so if you pass close to a caribou sculpture, you can hear their throaty vocalizations.
The wordless soundscape moments between stories allowed me to take in the words projected on one of the walls. These projections paired silhouettes of lichen with clear statements of the values that guided the project’s process. For example: “We are able to give and receive in balance. We share what we have. We practise consent within the group, with community.”
I notice that what these statements mean to me grows in resonance as I return after the opening, to spend more time listening to the stories.
At the opening itself, Charlie and Hyatt introduce us to the five-year-long journey that led to this exhibition. This is much more than a duo exhibition. Relationship to community is at the heart of its intentions.
They spoke about community and the herd. About 100 people joined them in workshops to build the cows and calves. The sound recordings grow out of five years’ of experience in working with people and caribou. About 20 people’s voices play a part in the soundscape. Charlie explained that about 16 minutes of the 107-minute loop focuses on the relationship between humans and caribou. She described the rest of the audio as being “more intimate”
and emphasized that collective work made this project happen.
“Many hands and hearts are part of this project.” They paid 17 artist fees and thanked the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning and the Canada Council for the Arts for making that possible.
Elders played a large part in guiding the project. Charlie and Hyatt dedicated this exhibition to the loving memory of the late Kaska Elder, Mary Maje. Charlie spoke with love and respect about all that Maje gave to this project and all that she taught them about the Kaska Laws that guide Kaska life with caribou.
When I return after the opening, I settle onto a bench and notice how the caribou in the gallery inhabit a place between two and three dimensions. Layers of thick plywood of gradually-smaller shapes build up their shoulders and haunches, reminiscent of topographic maps or layers of muscle.
Composite plywood heads are bolted to plexiglass necks, bolted to shoulder, bolted to back flank. The unmasked bolts make me think about joining … think about how things are connected—a central concern of this project.
Some of the caribou, especially younger ones, are simply rendered as silhouettes in plexiglass. Two plywood calves perch high on a moveable wall. The stylized renderings of caribou evoke them respectfully but also remind us that these are not the caribou themselves. This is a story.
I sit and hear a story of all the animals diving for earth before the Earth was here, and earth finally surfacing in muskrat’s little hand.
I notice the moving light catching in the frosted edges of the plexiglass.
I hear breathing. I hear a gunshot. I hear a tender description of cutting up a caribou on the land and taking her home.
The exhibition offers an opportunity to be close to caribou with our imaginations and listening, while sitting in an art gallery. I respect this use of this exhibition space and its resources.
Over the past couple of years I have noticed some Indigenous artists rewriting the European cultural story of the lone heroic artist and changing the culture of how things are done in art galleries.
For example, Jeneen Frei Njootli brought her auntie to the Yukon Prize Artist Talk so that she was not just talking by herself, about herself. I appreciated how she changed the way things were customarily done and so nudged our culture in what seems to me to be a better direction. On Tuesday March 31 at 6:30 p.m., Njootli will perform a piece in the gallery as part of this project.
The Caribou Art Project also changes the way a show is done at the Yukon Arts Centre. The artist’s statement panel reads more like a film credits list, listing many names and roles, as well as the funders and “Lands and Waters” that contributed to the project. I am grateful to Hyatt and Charlie for making a show that shows us a way to do this.
The Caribou Art Project has thought hard about its cultural practices. Charlie asked, while giving a tour during the Arctic Winter Games, “Will this help people to step up to help with caribou protection when they are called upon to do so?” I hope the answer is yes.
In the meantime, I encourage you to make the time to go up to the Yukon Arts Centre Gallery. Approach it as though you were going to a performance. Spend some time to listen to the stories from within the herd.
Also check out Caribou Creations in the ATCO Electric Yukon Youth Gallery. Paintings of caribou from the Khàtìnas.àxh Community School in Teslin excited me. The art teacher has set up a structure where these paintings can put to use the truth and energy of the painting style of children. Enjoy these among many youth artworks about caribou from around the Circumpolar North.Caribou Creations continues at the Yukon Arts Centre until April 24, with The Caribou Art Project running until May 22, along with Basia Barb Hinton’s Inner Space — Outer Space: The Fabric of the Universe. The Yukon Arts Centre Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and around performances in the theatre.
