2017 Riverside Arts Festival Artsfest_2017_program_final_web | Page 8

T
he Natural & The Manufactured is an annual thematic collaboration
between the ODD Gallery and the KIAC Artist in Residence Program.
Conceived as a speculative research and presentation forum, the N&M
looks to the myriad ways in which we both influence and are influenced by
our natural and constructed environments. Each year two artists are invited
to come to Dawson City to undertake a six-week residency culminating in an
ODD Gallery exhibition and public installation.
The Natural & The Manufactured 2017, the 13th annual edition of the
project, marks the project’s first time working with a guest curator. Marlaina
Buch (Nanaimo, BC), has invited this year’s artists, Lisa Hirmer (Guelph, ON)
& Leila Armstrong (Lethbridge, AB) to create the new, site-specific exhibition,
Tall Tales for Short Nights and Warm Planets, and will also expand the critical
context of the N&M through a public talk, panel discussion and the publica-
tion of a post-exhibition text.
Since 2005, this unique project in the far Canadian north has worked to
stimulate and engage artists and the community in a re-examination of cultural
and economic values imposed on the environment. Participants present
alternative political, social, economic and aesthetic agendas and strategies
towards a re-interpretation of the regional landscape and social infrastructure.
The full project archive is available online at naturalmanufactured.com.
The ODD Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the
Arts, Yukon Tourism and Culture, Dawson City Bunkhouse, the Yukon Arts Centre, the
Gallery and Artist-in-Residence committee and our volunteers.
The artists would like to thank all the Dawson City folks who shared their stories for this
project.
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