Moose Cree artist shortlisted for Canadian arts award

A Moose Cree artist has recently been shortlisted for a preeminent national award geared towards emerging artists in the contemporary Canadian arts scene.
Duane Linklater is one of five finalists for the Sobey Art Award, which is awarded to a Canadian artist age 40 and under chosen “due to their extraordinary and rigorous practice” and who “demonstrates a distinct style and approach to film making, video, performance…where spectral and imaginative concepts are contrasted with tangible everyday environment.”
Established by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in 2002, the Sobey Art Award presents the winner with $50,000 while the other finalists receive $5,000 each.
Linklater, who was long-listed in April along with 29 other artists from across Canada, said he was “super surprised” and “really happy” to be chosen from the Ontario region to make the final five.
“I didn’t expect it because I was really happy just to be on the long-list” the 37-year-old said. “I didn’t want to get ahead of myself thinking I could make the shortlist because there were really awesome artists that were in the same list as me.”
Linklater, who now resides just outside of North Bay, said his rise to becoming an emerging artist was not a straight path.
He first attended post-secondary school at the University Alberta to take Native Studies and Cree language with a minor in fine arts. After graduating, he returned to obtain his Bachelor of Fine Arts.
“Then I did a program with the National Film Board to make a short documentary and that was really helpful,” he said. “I started making film and video at that point.”
Linklater then enrolled in the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College in upstate New York where he completed his Masters of Fine Arts in Film and Video.
It was during this time that he and Brian Jungen, a First Nations artist from B.C., documented a moose hunt on 16mm film that would become the silent documentary Modest Livelihood.
Modest Livelihood was originally presented at the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre in collaboration with dOCUMENTA (13) with subsequent exhibitions at the Logan Centre Gallery at the University of Chicago and the Catriona Jeffries Gallery in Vancouver. It will be a part of an upcoming exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto this fall.
Last spring his video exhibition, Something About Encounter, was shown at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. The videos depict Linklater’s encounters with wildlife such as coyotes, rabbits, geese and deer, in urban environments across Canada.
Recently, Linklater had a piece called “The Chevrons” shown as part of a solo exhibit at the Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto.
The piece is Linklater’s take on the three jagged-lined yellow logo of Ontario Northland Transportation Commission (ONTC), a company that provides transportation and telecommunication services to the northeast, including Linklater’s home territory of the James Bay coast.
Growing up in Moose Factory, Linklater said the logo is ever-present in the minds of the Mushkegowuk since ONTC’s Polar Bear Express train serves as a vital link between the James Bay coast and the rest of Ontario.
“Because we grew up in the north and the Ontario Northland line, we’re familiar with that logo in the north,” Linklater said. “If you grew up in the area, it’s just sort of in your mind.”
Linklater was intrigued by the design and sought to find out more about the designer and the logo’s meaning when he went to ONTC’s headquarters in North Bay.
But during his research he found that there was no clear meaning behind the logo. Instead, it is ambiguous and the three stripes could have several meanings.
“It’s sort of representation of past, present and future,” he said. “It might mean movement, and speed might be suggested, but it’s not totally clear.”
Linklater said he has always liked the logo and, with the recent discovery of its ambiguity, he likes it even more.
For “The Chevrons,” Linklater kept the core logo and colour intact but extended the stripes to the floor and ceiling.
“To stretch it, it could still retain its original identity to address the room,” Linklater said.
Now that he has returned home to North Bay from the Susan Hobbs Gallery exhibit, Linklaters plans to unwind before beginning preparations for exhibits this fall.
Along with the Modest Livelihood show, Linklater will prepare for a group exhibition in Calgary.
He is also preparing for the exhibition of works by the Sobey Art Award’s shortlisted artists beginning on Sept. 13, which will be shown at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
The winner of the award will be announced at a gala event at the gallery on Oct. 9.
Information about Linklater’s work can be seen on his website: www.duanelinklater.com.