This artificial black ice is made from high density polypropylene and dusted with Astroglide sexual lubricant. Viewers are invited to put on ice skates and skate alone around this oil-slick rink.  I recall memories of skating alone at night on Winnipeg outdoor rinks.  I recall watching my father- the Goalie, skate around the rink alone before each game in a state of deep meditation and contemplation. With this work, I attempt to offer the viewer a similar space, to skate around in a petro-swirl of artifice, contemplating the toxic post colonial Canadian identity while experiencing the exhilaration of extraction.

Made in response to the nightmare logic of the Suncor Energy Reclamation SItes. I recall being told by a site manager that the vast landscape peppered with upside down birch trees was a strategy to attract ravens. The hope was that the ravens would perch on the upside-down Birch trees and hunt the mice who have moved into the area and are eating the toxic wheat. The wheat was planted as an attempt to practice bio-remediation. The goal was that over time, the wheat would extract all the toxins that now pollute the Earth and are not allowing new trees to grow. 

An Unkindness is the linguistic term for “a gathering of ravens”. I made this cacophonous suspended sculpture as a caricature of the above mentioned place and through this work I explore my grief for this devastated Northern Landscape.