THE DECLINE IN OUTDOOR SKATEABILITY 2013-2090
For this exhibition, Mia Feuer has created a sculptural intervention between two trees in Stewart Park. This new work is a symbolic representation of the artist’s real and speculative research related to her environmental concerns. She uses projections provided by RinkWatch, a research project initiated by Wilfrid-Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. The RinkWatch team supplied Feuer with data from four Canadian cities describing the decline in the number of days when temperatures were low enough to keep outdoor skating rinks open. These layers actually symbolize the lines on a graph, illustrating the decrease in potential skateability 90 years into the future.
To achieve this work, over two hundred hockey sticks were collected amongst residents and organizations on the Island of Montreal.
Materials: Hockey sticks, lumber, branches, tail lights, Rockite resin, epoxy paint, hardware.
Creative Process
Mia Feuer’s practice is motivated by a constant concern for the environment. She is interested in post-natural landscapes – those sites where the effects of human interaction are visible. Her work highlights our material dependency and the substantial degradation of the environment.
The Artist
Mia Feuer hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and currently lives in Oakland, California, where she is an assistant professor of sculpture at the California College of the Arts. In early 2017, she participated in the first women-only exhibition at the well-known Saatchi Gallery in London, England. Her résumé includes an impressive number of both solo and group exhibitions, as well as artist residencies and several awards, including the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer Prize given to Canadian artists who exhibit strong artistic potential.
