Eagle Plains, Yukon
 

the

arctic circle

retreat

exhibition

The Arctic Circle Retreat Exhibition is a showcase of work by past residents. 

Since its inception in 2017, the Arctic Circle Retreat has awarded week-long residencies at the Eagle Plains Hotel to a wide variety of Yukon artists. With no expectations on how the time is spent, each participant has engaged with this unique and remote environment in their own particular way. Thus far, the hotel has hosted filmmakers, a writer, a poet, photographers, and a comic artist. Some have made work in direct response to their time at the hotel, some continuing work on projects already underway, others spending the week to reflect and gather new ideas. For every participant, this self-directed residency will continue to reverberate throughout their practice in new and surprising ways, long after the retreat has passed. This online exhibition is being presented in the spirit of showcasing the range of practices, mediums, and sensibilities the Arctic Circle Retreat endeavors to support.

The Arctic Circle Retreat Collective is grateful for the ongoing and generous support of Stan McNevin and the staff of the Eagle Plains Hotel, and the Yukon Arts Fund who make this residency possible.

The Eagle Plains Hotel sits in the traditional territory of the Vuntut Gwitchin, in Eagle Plains, Yukon.

 
 

Participating Artists:

Devon Berquist

Dan Dowhal

Claire Falkenberg

Evan Rensch

Kimberly Edgar

Joanna Lilley

Krista Davis

 
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 Devon berquist

 

Devon Berquist is a visual artist based in the Yukon Territory. Her professional practice includes medium-format photography, sound, and film, and was launched by a foundation year at the Yukon School of Visual Arts in Dawson City, YT, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University, in Halifax, NS.

devonberquistphoto

@tundra.punk

 
 

 dan dowhal

 

Dan Dowhal is the author of three novels Skyfisher, Flam Grub, and his most recent, Bury Your Horses, published in January 2020 by Dundurn Press. Born and raised in Toronto's Queen West district, Dan holds a Journalism degree from Ryerson University. He currently lives in Dawson City, Yukon.

dandowhal.com

 
 

A 360° panorama of the Arctic Circle rest stop on the Dempster Highway taken by Dan Dowhal during his Arctic Circle Retreat residency at Eagle Plains, Yukon in February 2019.

 

I'm a nudge below the Arctic Circle, staying at the Eagle Plains Hotel, a truck stop on the legendary Dempster Highway. It's February, and although it's still cold out, the returning daylight helps temper the bitterness. Unlike Dawson City, where we lie in a geographical trough that can shutter the light, Eagle Plains sits high, with a far-reaching vista of the tundra and surrounding mountains, and when the sun comes out, it's all bright, blue sky…

 
 
 
 

 claire falkenberg

 

Claire Falkenberg makes paintings, photographs and artist books that aim to embody experiences of deep looking. Through this practice, the work points towards knowing and not knowing, the familiar and the mysterious, the ephemeral and the material. Claire lives in Dawson, Yukon, on the traditional territory of the Tr'ondek Hwech'in.

clairefalkenberg.com

 
 

 Evan rensch

 

Evan Rensch is a photographer based in Dawson City, Yukon. Rensch’s artistic projects are based in documentary practice. His work explores how human identity is shaped by themes of place, memory, and labour. Rensch’s projects are social and collaborative in nature, and he is specifically focussed on photographing communities marginalized by mass media culture.

evanrensch.com 

 

Sonja (Wolf Kahn Studio)

Inkjet print from silver gelatin glass negative, 14.5" x 20", 2019

 

Wendy (Schultz Sculpture Building)

Inkjet print from silver gelatin glass negative, 14.5" x 20", 2019

 
 

Katie (Schultz Sculpture Building)

Inkjet print from silver gelatin glass negative, 14.5" x 20", 2019

 
 

 Kimberly Edgar

 

Kimberly Edgar is an award-winning comic artist living on Tr'ondek Hwech'in land in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. Kim’s work reflects on their experiences of both the medical system and the ennui that comes with being sick with no end, often comparing human bodies with the land-as-body.

kimberlyedgar.com

@deadbirdparty

 

Illusions which kill

Gouache, watercolour, acrylic ink, 9” x 12”, 2021

Illusions 2 (comic)

Gouache, watercolour, acrylic ink, 9” x 12”, 2021

Expand, isolate

Gouache, watercolour, acrylic ink, 9” x 12”, 2021

 

 joanna Lilley

 

Joanna Lilley’s fifth book and third poetry collection, Endlings came out in 2020 and is all about extinct animals. She’s also the author of a novel, Worry Stones, and a short story collection, The Birthday Books. From the UK, Joanna now lives in Whitehorse, Yukon, with gratitude on the Traditional Territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta'an Kwäch'än Council.

joannalilley.com.

 

Joanna Lilley reads from Worry Stones (Ronsdale Press)

Joanna Lilley reads Beauty, a poem about the extinct Javan tiger from Endlings (Turnstone Press)

 
 

An excerpt from a work in progress, a novel tentatively called Permanent Residence.

Laura Watkins is desperate to escape her humble origins and do something useful with her life. But while being determined means she gets to create the life she's always wanted, her headstrong nature keeps leading her into trouble. Can she find a way to stop making bad decisions and hurting the people she loves most?

 

 Krista Davis

 

Krista Davis is a visual artist and filmmaker. Through video, animation, performance and installation, she looks for creative, sometimes fantastical strategies to shift human and non-human relationships towards a more ecologically just world. Davis has exhibited internationally. She received her BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and MFA from Arizona State University.

kristaleighdavis.com

 

Exercises in Being Close to You: A Story for the Arctic Refuge, Krista Davis. Video, 15:35min, 2020

The Icehouse Architect (Part 1: The body can hold what we need to rebuild), Krista Davis and Lily Reeves. Neon, video projection, 1min excerpt (3min original loop), 2020

Last Dance, Krista Davis and Lily Reeves. Video, performance, 3min, 2017

 

 

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