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| Dark Ice: Leslie Reid and Robert Kautuk | Bonavista Biennale 2021 | Flight Line: Erasure | Mapping a Cold War | Glacial | The Cape Pine Series | Leslie Reid: A Darkening Vision | Works on paper |

 

ᓯᑯ ᕿᕐᓂᖅᓯᓯᒪᔪᖅ | Dark Ice
ᓕᐊᔅᓕ ᕇᑦ ᐊᒻᒪ ᕌᕗᑦ ᑲᐅᑐᖅ | Leslie Reid and Robert Kautuk
A collaborative exhibition of new works.
Curator: Rebecca Basciano

April 23, 2022 - February 26, 2023

Ottawa Art Gallery
10 Daly Avenue
Ottawa ON
https://oaggao.ca/

Climate change is having a profound impact on global ecosystems, and is most dramatically evident in northern landscapes and communities. In the face of these challenges, Inuit knowledge and community-building are increasingly at risk, making it essential to adopt a variety of approaches, in combination with Inuit and settler collaboration.

Dark Ice demonstrates the intersections between the unique artistic, studio, and land-based practices of Leslie Reid of Ottawa, ON, and Robert Kautuk of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), NU. Alongside critical curatorial work, the exhibition features photographs, paintings and videos of Arctic land and ice, and of communities and their experiences.

Reid is an established painter and photographer who has travelled extensively and conducted in-depth research in the Arctic through the Canadian Forces Artists Program and the Canada C3 expedition. In retracing her father’s Royal Canadian Air Force mapping flights, undertaken in the early years of the Cold War, she became increasingly aware of the impact of colonialism on the North.

Kautuk mobilizes drone technology to capture aerial photographs and videos of his community. He works at the Ittaq Heritage and Research Centre, and is a driving force behind the Clyde River Knowledge Atlas, a digital platform that documents and records traditional knowledge, while also encouraging community and Inuit-led research.

Together, these two artists create meaningful research and visualizations that foster diversified perspectives around climate change. Kautuk and Reid’s collaboration combines their experiences to develop a dialogue that maps the Arctic and offers a promising path forward in the face of global warming.

Text from the Ottawa Art Gallery webpage about the exhibition.

Works by Leslie Reid

After the Cryogenic (Snowball Earth), 2021.
Photographs printed on ten brushed-aluminum panels, 45.72 x 60.96 cm.
Photographs by Leslie Reid, 2008-2009, Ediacaran Fossils, Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland.
Exhibited at the Bonavista Biennale, Newfoundland, 2021.

Near: Northwest Passage; Spitsbergen, 2021.
Six photographs from the Northwest Passage, 2017; six from Spitsbergen, Svalbard, 2018, by Leslie Reid.
Far: Old Settlement, 2021 (opposite side).
Twelve photographs of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River) Old Settlement, 2019, by Robert Kautuk.
All photographs printed on eight suspended cotton fabric banners, each image: 45.72 x 60.96 cm, each banner: 154.94 x 76.2 cm.

Ice Wall: Facing Dahlbreen, 2020.
Panoramic photograph printed on eight brushed-aluminum panels, 76.2 x 914.4 cm.
Terminus of the Dahlbreen Glacier, at Dahlbrebukta, Spitsbergen, Svalbard. Sailing on the tall ship Antigua as a participant of the The Arctic Circle Artists Residency, Svalbard, 2018.

Into the Ice: Bellot Strait, Sailing West, Looking South-West, 2021.
Into the Ice: Bellot Strait, Sailing West, 2020-2021.
Into the Ice: Bellot Strait, Sailing West, Looking North-West, 2021.
Triptych, oil on canvas, 137.16 x 137.16 cm, 137.16 x 259.08 cm, 137.16 x 137.16 cm.
From the deck of the Canada C3 icebreaker MV Polar Prince sailing through Bellot Strait, 2 km wide and 25 km long, separating the North American mainland from Somerset Island and the Arctic Archipelago.

Heartbeat, 2015.
Video, 06:58. View.
Recorded while Reid was artist-in-residence with the military during annual Canadian Forces sovereignty operations, Op NANOOK, activities at Resolute, Nunavut, 2013.

Uluriak, 2017.
Video, 13:30. View.
Elder Zipporah Kalluk talks of her experience when she was relocated to Qausuittuq (Resolute Bay) from Aulattivik and Mittimatalik (Pond Inlet), Baffin Island, as a child. Recorded at her home in Resolute in 2017.

Zipporah, 2017.
Video, 6:41. View.
Uluriak Amarualik, from Resolute, Nunavut, was a fellow participant on the Canada 150 C3 icebreaker MV Polar Prince, 2017. She spoke of her life as we sailed through the Northwest Passage. Uluriak also appears in the video Heartbeat.

Through Time, Through Space 1, 2020.
Lightboxes, 68.58 x 68.58 cm, 68.58 x 96.52 cm.
Archival aerial vertical b/w photograph: National Air Photo Library; taken for early mapping of the North, above Grise Fiord, 1959.
Colour photograph: Leslie Reid, taken from the deck of the Canada C3 icebreaker (MV Polar Prince), Franklin Strait, 2017.

Through Time, Through Space 2, 2020.
Lightboxes, 68.58 x 68.58 cm, 68.58 x 96.52 cm.
Archival aerial vertical b/w photograph: National Air Photo Library; taken for early mapping of the North, above King Edward Point, 1959.
Colour photograph: Leslie Reid, taken from the deck of the Canada C3 icebreaker (MV Polar Prince), Franklin Strait, 2017.

Disappearance, 2021.
Lightboxes, 68.58 x 68.58 cm, 68.58 x 96.52 cm.
Archival aerial vertical b/w photograph: National Air Photo Library, taken for early mapping of the North, above Jones Sound, 1959.
Aerial colour photograph: Leslie Reid, taken from a Hercules transport aircraft as part of Canadian Forces Op NANOOK, 2013.
Exhibited at the Bonavista Biennale, Newfoundland, 2021.

Through Time, Through Space 4, 2020.
Lightboxes, 68.58 x 68.58 cm, 68.58 x 96.52 cm.
Archival aerial vertical b/w photograph: National Air Photo Library; taken for early mapping of the North, above the Baffin Island coast between Iqaluit (then Frobisher) and Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), 1953.
Colour photograph: Leslie Reid, taken from the deck of the Canada C3 icebreaker (MV Polar Prince), Franklin Strait, 2017.

Through Time, Through Space 5, 2020.
Lightboxes, 68.58 x 68.58 cm, 68.58 x 96.52 cm.
Archival aerial vertical b/w photograph: National Air Photo Library; taken for early mapping of the North, above Frobisher Bay, 1949.
Colour photograph: Leslie Reid, taken from the deck of the Canada C3 icebreaker (MV Polar Prince), Franklin Strait, 2017.

By Land, Sea and Air, 2022.
Digital projection mosaic, 204.47 x 274.32 cm.
Archival aerial b/w photographs: National Air Photo Library, Yukon and High Arctic mapping photographs, 1948–1959.
Colour photographs: Leslie Reid, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Svalbard, 2013–2018.

Financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa is gratefully acknowledged.



 

 

  

 

 

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