Yukon Artists at Work celebrate Yukon cinema with a group exhibition this month.
I had the idea to create a collaboration with them (YFS, which operates the theatre) for the Available Light Film Festival
Yukon Artists at Work’s (YAAW) new group exhibition, Reel Art: Celebrating Yukon Cinema, is inspired by two cultural milestones: the Yukon Theatre’s 70th anniversary and the Yukon Film Society’s (YFS) 40th.
Running from Feb. 7 to March 1 during this year’s Available Light Film Festival (ALFF), the exhibition showcases artworks created to honour Yukon’s history in film by renowned local artists Neil Graham, Aimee Ellis, Susanne Hausermann, Donald C. Watt, Nicole Bauberger, Linda Leon, Janet Patterson, Leslie Leong, Pat Bragg and Marie-Hélène Comeau.
“The YAAW Gallery is surrounded by great neighbors and one of them is the Yukon Theatre,” says Comeau, who is also the exhibition curator. “So, I had the idea to create a collaboration with them (YFS, which operates the theatre) for the Available Light Film Festival, not knowing this year was an important year for the Yukon Film Society. Last summer I contacted the Yukon Film Society to see if such a collaboration could be possible and we started the project.”
Since YAAW is full of talented artists who were eager to share their experience, Comeau’s idea was met with enthusiasm
“For this collaboration I am acting as a curator and an artist,” she continues. “I invited members of Yukon Artists at Work to participate by creating art pieces representing their experience with Yukon cinema. It is a great way to share stories with art and create bridges between two creative Yukon organizations.”
Comeau, who has been part of YAAW since 2019, specializes in paintings and photos, and often teaches art workshops in Yukon schools. For this exhibition, she made two pieces.
“One will be a short animation using an old technology, the ancestor of films and stop motion; a praxinoscope,” she says. “The second piece will be mixed media (watercolour and drawing) on paper illustrating my first experience with the Yukon Film Society, in 1993 or 1994 when I went to see the movie Like Water for Chocolate presented in town. It is very exciting as a curator to see this project growing.”
Graham is one member of YAAW who immediately put his name down after seeing Comeau’s request for artists to contribute to the project. “The Yukon Film Society, and particularly the Yukon Theatre, have played a role in my 36 years in the Yukon,” he says. “An image of the theatre from the point of view of the screen immediately popped into my mind.”
For his piece, titled “Watching Jurassic Park,” Graham chose not to recreate the theatre seat by seat, but instead to illustrate what a cinema feels like when it’s full, drawing from his memory of a screening of the dinosaur thrillerin 1993.
“I remember that scene of when the tyrannosaurus appeared, how the theatre shook with its footsteps,” he says. “I imagine most viewers were as scared as I was and I have everyone in the theatre reacting in their own way. There are over 120 faces in the painting, each one different.”
Graham isn’t alone in having special memories surrounding Yukon cinema. For Patterson, a self-professed movie buff, this project tied together her love of film with her passion for collaborating with other artists.
“I particularly love monster films, so I knew very early on that I wanted to create a piece that paid homage to the golden era of the monster movie,” she says. “I had also just seen The Glenn Miller Story, which was the very first film that was shown at the Yukon Theatre 70 years ago. This inspired me to create the second piece that I have done for the exhibition.”
Patterson’s monster movie tribute “The Creature” is made from wood, plastic skulls, a broken toy dinosaur, various fabrics, acrylic paint, a picture frame, a pair of 3D glasses and air-dry clay.
With her particular affinity for the ’40s and ’50s, The Creature From the Black Lagoon is one of her favourites. Her other piece, “Opening Night” is made from an old film reel, film, broken jewelry, clay jug, a plastic model of a camera, a metal toy airplane, wire and acrylic paint. It commemorates the first movie ever shown in the Yukon Theatre in December, 1954.
Watt, a university-trained artist specializing in sculpture, took an interest in the theme and luckily, had the time on his hands to create something special.
“The Reel Art show struck accord with me for several reasons,” he explains. “First, I am a sculptor who designs and builds three dimensional pieces from small tabletop sculptures of clay or bronze to larger-than-life-size works.
“I also design and build theatre and movie set pieces for productions mounted in Yukon. My connection to both the art gallery work and movie work stirred my thought process to build a piece for the show.”
Watt built a piece centred around the audience experience. Using an actual chair from the Yukon Theatre and casting an audience member, he created “The Audience,” which he describes as, “sitting in an old Yukon Cinema Theatre chair, the lingering embodiment of generations of audience leave a lasting impression.”
The opening reception of Reel Art takes place Feb. 7, 2025, from 4-7 p.m.at the YAAW Gallery, before the kickoff of the Available Light Film Festival that evening. Members of the public are invited to view the exhibition and engage with the artists present. The show will also be a part of the monthly First Friday art crawl that runs through downtown Whitehorse.
The exhibition will remain open until March 1, 2025, during the regular gallery hours 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free. To learn more about YAAW, visit https://yaaw.com.
