Yurtopia

1995

 

collaboration with Evelyn Von Michalofski

 

Yurtopia continued our critical inquiry into the function of museums. A nomadic museum in the form of a yurt was erected inside the gallery. The felt skin of the yurt is constructed of solicited donations of various fibres from diverse communities surrounding the gallery. “Portable Museum Costumes,” collecting/displaying/storage/survival outfits, were worn during collecting forays out of the gallery. Expeditions into the outer landscape of southern Alberta appropriated the methodology of anthropological field research, accumulating a collection of objects and anecdotes – visual, written, auditory, and oral histories. By transposing the institution of museum onto our own bodies, we disrupted the habitual way in which information is interpreted and knowledge conveyed and acquired. Considering the meaning of shelter within this context leads to the embodiment of art as a living form and to the art of survival. Shelter operates on both a personal and public level: as psychological and physical clothing and architecture.

 

 


 

 


 

media: linen, felt, bamboo, seagrass, various media
dimensions: 12’ diam.  x  12’ H

 

Curated by Joan Stebbins for Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB.