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46 in Red Rock (2019)

HD Video, 1080p, AAC Stereo, 6'30"

Red Rock Coulee was once the bottom of an ancient sea. Bedrock lies close beneath the surface and large red concretions appear sporadically like misplaced boulders amidst the banks of shale and sandstone. The concretions are formed by calcite and iron oxide that built up in layers around clusters of leaves, shells, and bones on the bottom of the sea millions of years ago. Some of the concretions have a diameter of nearly three metres. This part of the Alberta badlands is home to rattlesnakes, scorpions, and horned lizards; yet, despite its desert features, Red Rock Coulee does not hold the record for hottest day in Canadian history.

Flower Arrangements for the Hillcrest Mine Disaster Cemetery (2018)

HD Video, 1080p, 70'00"

In Spring 2018, I began collecting plastic flowers that had blown into the fences and ditches surrounding the Hillcrest Cemetery. The tradition of placing flowers on graves in occidental culture dates to ancient Greece when white lilies were placed on the graves of dead soldiers, the blossoms representing contentment in the afterlife. With artificial flowers, the perpetual blossoms disconnect the tradition from its original meaning, yet remain part of the material culture of grieving.

Thanks to Jennifer Babits

Chorus (2018)

HD Video, 30'00", four channel surround sound audio

Chorus developed out of research on the Pincher Creek wind farms in Southern Alberta. The incentive for renewable power has fostered an ongoing debate about turbine efficiency, structural longevity, energy storage, and wildlife safety. This video expands on normative scales of human time and considers alternative scales – from animal time, to geologic time.

The video is composed of thirty stationary shots of turbines slowed to one frame per second. The audio track is a recording of an amplified kitchen clock.

Apocalypse, Tomorrow Morning (2018)

HD video, 17'14" (3 minute sample)

A single-channel projection plays a subtitled monologue composed of literary descriptions of apocalypse and hangovers accompanied by sounds of the Port Dover Harbour.

Montana Suite pt. I (2017)

HD video, 55'00"

This ethnographic video is the first of four works that comprise Montana Suite. The segment featured here records about two of five days spent wandering through Great Falls, Livingston, and Paradise Valley in search of the terroir and spirit of the late American poet Jim Harrison.

This quixotic task, fuelled by a sense of naive Romanticism, most often leads to the mundane, but periodically reveals a glimpse of humour and (on rare occasions) even the poetic.

Mailbox Incinerator (2017)

mailbox, aluminum duct, BBQ burner and ignition, steel post

The mailbox incinerator is a functional hybrid that confuses themes of productivity and destruction. As our methods of communication continue to advance in a post-digital age, the content of paper mail is continually being reduced to unwanted solicitations, flyers, and junk mail. The incinerator takes this byproduct of excess and transforms it into a cathartic event.

Sven, August (2016)

HD video, 11'22"

A life-size automaton made of wood, clay, and found clothing was placed in an aluminum fishing boat for one year as a play on socially-engaged and public art. Video documentation was used to record his progress through the changing seasons.

This intervention took place on Harp Lake, near the town of Huntsville, Ontario.

Sven, October (2016)

HD video, 11'22"

Sven initially began as a weekend-long social experiment, but news of the project soon reached the permanent residents of Harp Lake. Surprisingly, they got a kick of being 'in' on the prank, and when I was ready to end the intervention, a number of locals offered to take care of Sven while I was away. This allowed the project to continue for an entire year.

Sven, February (2016)

HD Video 11'22"

The following spring, Sven was brought in to shore, mostly unchanged except for a bit of mold and some cracks in his face. His absence was immediately noticed, and even lamented by some of the local residents. When an angler is having tough luck on the lake, they're reminded of Sven... who sat out there for a year and didn't even get a bite.

Investigate & Disseminate (2016)

HD Video, 15'52"

This cinema verite-style video was installed at Roadside Attractions, a storefront venue on Davenport in Toronto. The window was dressed in the style of a film noir detective agency.

The footage is shot with an action camera that was planted in a briefcase while the operator casually strolls through major art institutions, art fairs, and blue chip galleries in Toronto, Montreal, and New York City. The wanderer, like some disinterested flaneur, has no apparent intent or destination.