Pictured: Leg 14 artist Geoff Phillips works on a painting in the town of Namu (Painting pictured in header)
Nigit’stil Norbert (Leg 1)
Nigit’stil Norbert is a multidisciplinary artist originally from and based out of Denendeh/Yellowknife and Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T. Her first solo exhibition, Beading Heart, which focuses on the lifeblood that is the Nagwichoonjik/Dehcho/Mackenzie River, will be exhibited this year. Norbert is passionate about politics and engaging with her community, with a focus on strengthening and empowering youth voices and growth when it comes to avenues of creative expression and social justice.
Read more here
Christine Fitzgerald (Leg 2)
Since completing Leg 2, Christine Fitzgerald exhibited in a number of solo and group shows and last fall was a visiting artist in print media at the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University. She is currently the artist in residence at the Ottawa School of Art. Her aim during the residency is to explore and gain a deep understanding of 19th century printmaking and photographic observation. Her series TRAFFICKED which sheds light on the illegal trade of wildlife and completed in collaboration with the Wildlife Enforcement Branch of the Canadian Government, was recently covered by The Washington Post and CBC
Read more here
Pictured: Kaniehtiio, wet collodion plate, 2017
Patrick Saad (Leg 3)
Patrick Saad was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the child of an Italian-Lebanese Mother and a father of Greco-Palestinian origin. His heritage is reflected in the diversity of his photographic subjects. He uses the medium to focus on how both process/technique and visual composition can convey human perception.
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Soheila Esfahani (Leg 4)
Over the last 3 months, Soheila Esfahani has exhibited on 2 coasts in solo and group shows. For Interstice, at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts (Canning, NS), Esfahani presents sculptural works. Pulling from her own history of migration, she explores themes of translation, adaptation, and the space between cultures. These preoccupations are also evident in her work at the Surrey Art Gallery (Surrey, BC). As part of Flow: From the Movement of People to the Circulation of Information, Esfahani uses ceramics to reference a well-known painting of new immigrants arriving in Canada. For the body of work inspired by C3, Esfahani collected various objects in souvenir shops and laser-etched them with an arabesque design from the city of Isfahan in Iran, where her ancestors are from. In doing this, her work questions displacement, dissemination, and reinsertion of culture
Read more here
Pictured: A Trace of Traceless: Pier 21, Acrylic and laser etching on found object on wooden panel, 2017 / A Trace of Traceless: Canso, Acrylic and laser etching on found object on wooden panel, 2017 / A Trace of Traceless: Sydney, Acrylic and laser etching on found object on wooden panel, 2017
Dominique Normand (Leg 5)
Dominique was invited by the Francophone Association for Arts Education in Ontario to facilitate a workshop as part of “Renewed Relationships”, their regional training on Indigenous education. The event took place at the Richelieu-Vanier Community Center (Ottawa, ON) and focused on truth and reconciliation. The workshop combined sharing Normand’s experience with C3 with discussion on themes of identity and territory, and the historical and present day reality of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit. Dominique was also recently in Australia, where she took part in the Murwillumbah Art Trail exhibition, leading a workshop on her creative process. She also has work currently on display at Wall Space Gallery in Ottawa.
Pictured: Icebears, acrylic on canvas, 2017
Francine Potvin (Leg 6)
In April 2018, Galerie Renée-Blain (Brossard, QC) hosted an exhibition by Francine Potvin featuring collagraphy and linocut prints. Inspired by the symbolic and physical qualities of plants, Potvin’s work involves using vegetation as a tool for printing. Through this process, the texture of plants are transferred to paper using ink.
Read more here
Pictured: Les pleurs cristallisés de la mer du Labrador (2), collagraph on Somerset paper, 2017
Phil Irish (Leg 7)
Since the journey with Canada C3, Phil Irish has had a solo exhibition at Lonsdale Gallery in Toronto titled Peak Velocity, and joined in the environmentally themed Hidden Valley Revealed at Kitchener’s Homer Watson Gallery. His work was exhibited as part of the Kingston Prize competition. He gave a joint talk, with Randall Howard, about the experiences and insights gained as part of Canada C3. He is currently working on images based on the Canada C3 experience, focusing on shifting forms of icebergs and glaciers.
See more work here
Pictured: Study from the Deck of the Polar Prince, watercolour, 2017
Paula Murray (Leg 8)
Paula Murray works in ceramics. Post-C3, she showed work at the Taiwan Ceramic Biennale 2018 in a show curated by Shao Ting Ju and presented vessels and sculptural works at Galerie Elena Lee, in Montreal. Murray also presented artist talks at Mill Road Community Space (Chelsea, QC) and Enriched Bread Artists (Ottawa, ON) outlining her experience sailing from Qikiqtarjuak to Pond Inlet, Baffin Island with C3. The talk blended her personal experience on the expedition with her artistic practice and also functioned as a fundraiser for C3 alumni projects. Additionally, you can find Murray’s work in the newly-opened Ottawa Art Gallery!
Read more here
Leslie Reid (Leg 9)
Since C3, Leslie Reid has released 2 videos produced while on board. Like Paula Murray, Reid is also currently represented at the Ottawa Art Gallery. The inaugural group exhibition, titled Àdisòkàmagan, Nous Connaître un Peu Nous-mêmes, We’ll All Become Stories, explores the many histories of the Ottawa-Gatineau region. Reid presents a photo mosaic commissioned by the gallery. Flight Line: Erasure combines archival images and colour photographs of land and architecture. The work tells two stories in parallel, juxtaposing the development of the nation’s capital with the Government of Canada’s displacement of Inuit families to the High Arctic in the 1950s.
Reid will continue to explore polar regions and artistic production on board ships in the near future. In mid June, she set sail with The Arctic Circle, an arts and science residency in the Norwegian Archipelago aboard a triple masted tall ship.
Read more here
Pictured: Uluriak, single-channel video, 2017
Rachel Rozanski (Leg 10)
Rachel Rozanski creates large scale charcoal and digital works depicting objects that have become unidentifiable or abstract. Since her time on the Canada C3 expedition in Nunavut, Rachel’s work has focused on the effects of invasive species, pollutants, and climate change in Arctic environments. With a focus on combining science and Inuit knowledge in her research, Rozanski uses her work to unpack various environmental conflicts and histories.
Find out more here
Pictured: Entanglements, charcoal on paper, 2017
Benjamin Kikkert (Leg 11)
Benjamin Kikkert works in hot glass and mixed media sculpture. He is a graduate of the Sheridan College Craft & Design Program and a former resident of the Harbourfront Centre Craft & Design Studio. In 2018, he will be showing work in Trajectories, a group exhibition at Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery (Waterloo, ON). His studio is on Granville Island in Vancouver BC, currently known as Vancouver Studio Glass.
Find more work here
Véronique Tifo (Leg 12)
Working in pencil, felt-tip marker, and paper, Véronique created a tryptic honouring the preservation of history and culture in the Yukon and Alaska through strong links between generations of Inuit. The first work of this triptych represents an elder from Point Hope (Tikiqaq) in Alaska, devoted to the transmission of Iñupiat culture. The small plant in the central work evokes the rapid and devastating warming of the Arctic. The decrease in sea ice and coastal erosion indicate a real danger to the plants and unique animals of Herschel Island (Qikiqtaruk) in the Yukon. The third piece shows a young woman from Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories jumping on a nalukataq (Inuit trampoline). Originally, it is thought that this technique would have allowed Arctic hunters to spot whales off shore.
Read more here
Pictured: Tikiġaq, pencil, felt-tip marker, acrylic on paper, 2017 / Qikiqtaruk, pencil, felt-tip marker, acrylic on paper, 2017 / It looks like a caribou, pencil, felt-tip marker, acrylic on paper, 2017
Deanna (Dee) Bailey (Leg 13)
In January 2018, Dee participated in the Whitehorse public presentation Canada C3 Expedition: The Yukon Perspective. She unveiled 4 pieces made from her experience on the voyage. She gave a talk and Powerpoint presentation outlining her activities and inspiring moments on the trip, as well as what she learned about truth and reconciliation. In April 2018, she had an exhibition of twelve new paintings at the Yukon Artists at Work Gallery. FearLess in Nature examined fears and vulnerabilities in nature- a theme that emerged through her time in the Great Bear Rainforest and perspectives from the environmental pillar of the expedition.
See more work here
Pictured: SGang Gwaay Landing, Oil-based modelling clay, 2017
Geoff Phillips (Leg 14)
Geoff Phillips gave an artist talk in Maple Creek, SK., where he detailed his involvement in C3 and unveiled 8 paintings. He shared some of the moments that inspired him, including visits to the Hakai Institute and the community of Sointula, BC. Through anecdotes, photos, and videos, Phillips also highlighted how the experience informed his understanding of truth and reconciliation.
Read more here
Pictured: Harvey Humchitt, archival digital print, 2018
Anna Gaby Trotz (Leg 15)
Anna Gaby Trotz works in photography and print. The pieces she is working on post-C3 are focused on the act of listening. In her words, they are about “looking at our land, and saying, “Listen. We cannot continue to infinitely make the same mistakes.” Trotz’ body of work is inspired by her interactions with Mowachaht Elder Lillian Howard on Leg 15. In understanding Howard’s experiences of racism and trauma, Gaby-Trotz has reflected on the purpose of Canada C3. She writes, “ For me, the final leg of [C3] was about celebrating not Canada 150, but Canada 150+. This trip was about the discomfort that comes when one realizes that we aren’t as far ahead as we would like to be in terms of reconciliation. It is about the power that comes when we stop trying to say how much we have done, and ask how much more we need to do. It is about developing the language and necessary actions to true reconciliation.”
Find more of Anna’s work here
Pictured: Listen, archival digital print, 2018
In addition to watching the official Canada C3 artists produce work, we were pleased to see how the journey inspired other participants creatively as well. Educator and artist Karen Tamminga- Paton painted a canoe after reflecting on her time with Leg 15. When describing the work, she writes “connected by canoe…a long haul toward reconciliation”.
Thank you to all the artists maintaining the creative legacy of Canada C3! Do you have an artistic update to share? Contact us! We can’t wait to see what the future has in store – The Canada C3 Team