LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
Marcus Jackson owns a parka filled with goose down that has a hood trimmed with coyote fur.
Heart of a Boy, a piece by Marcus Jackson of Yellowknife that is being displayed in the OSC Gallery in Fort Simpson as part of the show Animal Matter. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo
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Jackson can't imagine trying to survive a Northern winter without his parka and feels a bit of pleasure when he puts it on and is comfortable. Jackson, however, also feels guilty about owning and wearing something made with animals, particularly coyotes, one of his favourite animals.
Animal Matters, Jackson's first solo exhibition in a public space, is currently on display at the OSC Gallery in Fort Simpson. The 10 mixed-media pieces in the exhibition explore the relationship humans have with wild animals, and the conflict and confusion, such as Jackson feels about his parka, that arises from it.
Jackson, who has lived in Yellowknife since 2010, expects his work will either be greeted with reverence or disdain, but unlikely with apathy. Everyone has an opinion about our relationship with wild animals, he said.
Not only does Jackson's work explore and question that relationship, it also incorporates found pieces of animals. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to spot deer antlers, coyote and black bear fur, a house sparrow and the bones from a coyote tail among other animal pieces incorporated into the artworks. Jackson salvaged many of the pieces himself from dead animals.
Related to animals, Jackson also explores human encroachment and habitat loss through his works. Prototype 1 Western Coyote, one of the pieces in the exhibition, also looks at how technology has affected animals.
The piece is made almost completely out of items Jackson found at the Yellowknife landfill including leather from mukluks. Using a Christmas reindeer lawn ornament as a base Jackson created a coyote with all of its inner workings exposed.
It looks at the idea of zoos and whether the next step is mechanical animals in zoos, he said.
"You wonder if technology will ever replace animals."
Living in the North has affected Jackson and his views on hunting, which were originally formed based on experiences in Alberta and B.C. Here one sees the value that hunters and trappers put on animal life and how many people rely on hunting as a way of life, he said.
In his untitled Christ figure, which is part of the exhibition, Jackson looks at the idea of sacrifice, wounding and the hunter, and how they are all bound together. There's a sense that every time a hunter kills he has to sacrifice a part of himself, he said.
Jackson, however, still questions, for instance, if trapping a fox in the NWT for fur that has lived all its life in the wild is more ethical than electrocuting a farm grown fox for the same purpose.
Is there a line there and where is it, and should it be more or less blurry, he wonders.
"I can say that I want one thing, but my actions don't necessarily back it up," said Jackson about human interaction with animals, while thinking about his fur-trimmed parka.
Animal Matters will be on display at the galley until Feb. 22. The exhibition reception will be on Jan. 18 from 7 to 9 p.m.
