whitefeatherhunter.ca
*website under perpetual construction - best viewed on a desktop browser
ALMA, 2009 - ongoing*
*Alma became an internet sensation in 2012, going viral with over 5 million hits in three days, via reddit front page. She went viral again in 2015, also via reddit front page. "Hoof Hand" is Alma's internet pseudonym/ avatar, appointed organically, and spontaneously performed by the reddit community.
Rogue taxidermy sculpture of human hair, found wig, recycled Persian lamb coat, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink fur, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy putty, found vintage mannequin. 69” x 33” x 24”/ web
Alma explores the simultaneous worship, demonizing and mythologizing of female autonomy, hybridity and sexuality.
Human hair, Persian lamb, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy, found vintage mannequin. 69” x 33” x 24”
James West photo for the Daily Gleaner
Human hair, Persian lamb, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy, found vintage mannequin. 69” x 33” x 24”
Human hair, Persian lamb, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy, found vintage mannequin. 69” x 33” x 24”
THE OSSIFICATORIUM, 2013-2014
The Ossificatorium is an intricately detailed project that includes textile, chemical and tissue-based sculpture, public intervention, creative nonfiction/ fictional narrative and digital web-based media such as a website, online GPS tracking, and .gifs. The work includes objects both displayed as biomimetic processes and abandoned in public spaces and tracked online, as well as historical/osteobiographical texts that "explain" the objects in a parallel dimension.
The works can be (and have been) encountered in a variety of contexts: in a gallery, physically by accident in public space, online through scanning, browsing or hyperlinking, on Google Earth, or as artifacts of an event(s).
View The Ossificatorium project website here.
This project was generously supported with funding from Concordia University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Hexagram | CIAM.
Image featured in all PR to represent Concordia's MFA program, 2013.
Magnesium sulfate crystals grown on knit hog gut
laser-etched (with textile patterning) sheet acrylic, magnesium sulfate crystals grown on knit hog gut, deer teeth, gel wax
Interior detail with DIY GPS unit in hand-dyed silk pouch
In situ/ abandonment, Musée des beaux arts, Montreal
Live online GPS track of object in motion after abandonment
PARENT FOLDER, 2012-2013
The entire Parent Folder project includes stop motion animation digital video [11:59 minutes] of collected surveillance footage over a 12-month period (with subtitled text excerpts), a daily 12-month surveillance log, as well as a digitally printed silk body pillow that the artist performed sleeping with every night for one year (displayed as performance artefact). See the body pillow here. A number of Jacquard weavings were produced of some of the surveillance images as well, here.
Psychogeography is the "study of the laws of geographical space on the emotions and behaviour of individuals"(1). Described as "passional terrain"(2) by Guy Debord, psychogeography embodies the discovery of the elements and meaning of 'place'. 'Digital psychogeography' could describe the phenomenon of parallel existence of plane: on earth, and its simultaneous spatial representation in cyberspace, twinning place and "no-place".
The Parent Folder project stems from an interest in these considerations and how they have been considered aesthetically in an age of increasing digital intervention. In 2012, my distant father gave me online passcode access to his property surveillance camera so that I was able to pan the landscape and become a voyeur of his daily life. I downloaded material from an encoded archive called the Parent Folder, and used it to create objects that responded to my experience of watching him. In computing, the terms "parent" and "child" are often used to describe the hierarchical relationship between a directory and its sub-directory.
Parent Folder applies principles David Lyon has described when referring to surveillance, in terms of technologies that mediate relationships that are not co-present, as well as surveillance as a replacement for "tokens of trust" where the body has disappeared from interactions (3). The twinned worlds in Parent Folder form an interface through which affective bonds are fostered without face-to-face interaction.
1. Debord, Guy. Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (1955) in Situationist International anthology, trans. Knabb, Ken. 1981. Berkeley, Calif: Bureau of Public Secrets, 8-12.
2. Debord, Guy. Theory of the Dérive (1958) in Situationist International anthology, trans. Knabb, Ken. 1981. Berkeley, Calif: Bureau of Public Secrets, 62-67.
3. Lyon, David. “Everyday surveillance: personal data and social classifications” in The Surveillance Studies Reader (Hier, Sean P. and Josh Greenberg, eds.). England: Open University Press. 2007. pp. 136-7.
The work was presented as a work in progress as part of the group exhibition, Cyber In Securities curated by Lisa Moren at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery in Washington, DC as well as part of a group video installation curated by Terrance Houle and presented at The Works Art & Design Festival in Edmonton, Alberta as well as at Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton, New Brunswick. It was also shown as a work in progress in a solo exhibition at Mouse Print Gallery (Concordia University Print Media Department) and at Art Mûr (Montreal). It's final (full-year archive) was presented at Studio XX (Montreal) as part of the 2016 HTMlles Festival.
Private online surveillance image digitally printed onto silk, sewn into a pillow, performed (sleeping with) nightly for one year, for the duration of the total project entitled, Parent Folder. The performative aspect of the project attempts to make physical the nonphysical, in search of intimacy mediated through web-based platforms.
Art Mûr, Montreal
Pepco Edison Place, Washington, DC
Studio XX, Montreal. Photo credit: Lien Multimédia.
Digitally printed silk sewn into pillow and used for one-year durational performance.
SQUIRRELY, 2011
[2:09] minutes
Appropriated YouTube video footage of two separate videos, edited and spliced, with captions added.
Squirrely examines two modes of social treatment of the squirrel body. Both original YouTube videos provoked similar social hysteria online, in comments sections, despite the difference of rites.
Video still
Video still
Video still
Video still
Back projection installation on fabric, Dooryard Arts Festival, Woodstock, NB
Back projection installation on fabric, Dooryard Arts Festival, Woodstock, NB. Shown installed with Ossa phototextile.
FANTASMAGORIE, 2011
[4:53] digital video/ one-night rear-projection installation
Drawing on the concept of phantasmagoria or the magic lantern, a late 18th-century French theatre technique, fantasmagorie was presented as part of A Surreal Masquerade at the Beaverbrook Provincial Art Gallery, New Brunswick.
Images link to the video.
Skype-mediated performances by both a professional and non-professional performer are choreographed by the artist. This work connects the technology of a computer screen projection with the idea of the magic lantern, in a sequence of lo-fi surreal images. Flaws/ features of the medium are exploited, including internet lag, two-pass interlacing jaggies, pixelation distortion and cursor arrow.
Performed by Brit Hunter
Installation at the Beaverbrook Provincial Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
Installation at the Beaverbrook Provincial Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB
Performed by Shantell Powell
Rear projection room, Beaverbrook Provincial Art Gallery, Fredericton, NB