The installation appropriates the icon of a tiki-hut and recontextualizes it for the dark and the cold of winter in Dawson City, YT, Canada. The work disrupts the psychological experience of the winter season by introducing the installation which merges crafted wooden structure, repurposed materials, lighting and performance into the snowy landscape. As individuals visit Tiki-Hut for a tropical cocktail, they are given reason to experience the extreme cold of the north Canadian(-30°C/-22°F) winter while simultaneously experiencing that which is particular to the tropics. Tiki-Hut manifests a space within the Yukon landscape where visitors can interact with the artist in an oasis of cultural and psychological warmth.
The work creates an absurd play critical of the importation of tropical fruit and vegetables to remote locations. Tiki-Hut also questions what obligations might exist between those in the global north in relation to those in the global south. Additionally, through the performance of mixing and selling cocktails, Tiki-Hut diminishes commercial art to that of any other commodity while satirizing the art-market.
Masquerading as a bar, the work is able to access a wider audience through which it can explore the relationships between craft, materials, the environment, viewers and artists while simultaneously playing with ideas of capitalism and the art-market through the simplified format of a Tiki-Hut. A unique experience of cultural and psychological warmth await you in the cold and the dark of the Yukon winter.
The work creates an absurd play critical of the importation of tropical fruit and vegetables to remote locations. Tiki-Hut also questions what obligations might exist between those in the global north in relation to those in the global south. Additionally, through the performance of mixing and selling cocktails, Tiki-Hut diminishes commercial art to that of any other commodity while satirizing the art-market.
Masquerading as a bar, the work is able to access a wider audience through which it can explore the relationships between craft, materials, the environment, viewers and artists while simultaneously playing with ideas of capitalism and the art-market through the simplified format of a Tiki-Hut. A unique experience of cultural and psychological warmth await you in the cold and the dark of the Yukon winter.
Tiki-Hut was executed while artist in residence at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture.
