HUNTER:GATHERER (2002 - ongoing)
This collection of work brings together selected photographs on the subject of woodpiles (begun in 2006) with others from my Platforms project (started in 2002). The woodpiles were photographed in Ontario and Switzerland, while the hunting platforms are all found in Ontario near Georgian Bay.
These two on-going bodies of work share a concern with vernacular structures and both reflect subject matter associated with rural settings. Also common to both is their situation "outside" of history. Even though hunting and wood-gathering are probably two of humankind's oldest survival strategies, the specific hunting platforms and woodpiles that I have photographed are not themselves part of any recorded history. They are, instead, sites and activities that are shared through memory, word-of-mouth and understood by example. No official maps are produced of hunting platform locations nor is stacking wood usually learned through reading a manual.
Presented here is a selection of works drawn from larger bodies of work.
An exhibition under the title, Hunter:Gatherer featuring 26 photographs from these two bodies of work toured across Canada in 2008-09. A catalogue accompanied this exhibition. Installation views can be seen HERE.
