Ice Box 2020

Art comes to the heart of winter

Kate Vader, Dylan DiBerto (front) and Jennifer Bruce visit the Print installation of artists Genna Kusch and Chrissy Poitras.

Winter is no barrier when it comes to art, as evidenced by the large number of people that visited the grounds of Macaulay Museum for the first weekend of this year’s Ice Box Festival. Following an opening smudging ceremony and invocation by Indigenous elder David Jock (Wenhniserilo) He Brings a Nice Day, and a message from Mayor Steve Ferguson on Saturday morning, people could visit each of five brightly painted sheds that held a different art installation based on the concept of what it means to travel. Nella Casson and her mother, Marion, transformed their hut into a railway car on a trip across Canada. They created a tapestry 16 feet in length that depicted scenes that they sketched on their journey from Toronto to Vancouver, annotated with vignettes of the people they met. The tapestry is on rollers so it appears that the scenes are drifting past the train window. Travel of a different nature is featured in the installation by Chrissy Poitras and Genna Kusch. The stark black and white geometric shapes on the wall engender a sense of foreboding, and intricately cut figures are revealed on the pull-down panels. It is the story of a migration to a new and strange place, but as with most migration stories, there is a glimmer of hope for a better life. Susanne Larner’s installation had a display of plants both real and fanciful, and explores how the seeds brought by the early settlers have transformed the landscape, sometimes displacing indigenous species and sometimes growing alongside them. The walls of Andrea Piller’s hut is covered in a large map of the County. Students from five different schools were each given a small portion of the map to colour or annotate, and the pieces were then reassembled for the installation. Visitors are invited to mark on the map any locations that have a particular meaning for them. The final installation, created by Hri Neil, asks visitors to create their own stories by using cut-outs of local plants, animals and birds that they then place on a magnet board.

(L-R): Mallee Paxton and Norah Venslovaitis learn about plants at Susanne Larner’s Grow installation.

The sheds are just one aspect of the festival. There is also music, dance and storytelling. On Saturday afternoon, Jowi Taylor brought the story of Six String Nation to Macaulay Museum. This is a guitar nicknamed “Voyageur” that is made from 64 pieces collected from across Canada. The tone bar inside the body of the guitar comes from Pierre Trudeau’s canoe paddle, a miniature carving of a ulu (knife) made of caribou antler from Nunavik adorns the fifth fret. The back face of the guitar is made from the only piece of wood from the sacred Golden Spruce tree that the Haida allowed to be used. It took 11 years for Taylor to collect all of the pieces and have them made into Voyageur. “This is more than just a guitar, it is the embodiment of the soul of Canada,” said Taylor. “I’m always reluctant to call it a living museum or compendium. On the one hand, it is simply a guitar, something with a voice that musicians bring out and people hear. But it also becomes a vessel for these histories, and a window into the different visions of Canada.” Taylor has been travelling with this guitar all across Canada since 2006, and thousands of musicians have played the instruments, while countless Canadians have had their portrait taken with it. On Saturday, local musicians Annelise Noronha, Lisa Bozikovic and Kat Burns each had the opportunity to play Voyageur. Bozikovic said she felt a living force within the guitar as she played it. “I thought about the story of the Golden Spruce and the actual power of that tree living in this instrument,” she said. “That to me was the most powerful symbol of how complicated the idea of Canada is, but also how important it is to have these conversations and reflect on who we are.” On Sunday afternoon, Juno award winner Justin Rutledge ended his sold-out concert at Macaulay Museum by playing the final song on Voyageur.

Other events at Ice Box included a community dance with choreographer Arwyn Carpenter, a demonstration of wool spinning and weaving, and a musical story by Birdbone Theatre. Ice Box will be open during the week for school visits, and then again on this coming weekend with a full schedule of events. Near the close of last Sunday’s event, Ice Box creative director Krista Dalby said she was very pleased with the weekend attendance and performances. “So far, it’s been amazing,” she said. “The crowds have been great. All of the artists have been spectacular, and to bring them all together this weekend has been really special.” This year, Dalby hired a publicist to get the message out about Ice Box, and she has received great media exposure on CBC as well as Global. But she also said that without a dedicated team of volunteers, this event wouldn’t happen. As an example, she said that volunteers came out in a snowstorm to help erect the sheds. “One of the most astonishing things is how committed our volunteers are. This type of teamwork really brings out the best in people,” she said.

This weekend’s events includes a seed meditation session, a demonstration of historic Indigenous tools, a flow and movement workshop from the Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts, and a fire dance from Trellis Arts and Entertainment. Local artist Saralou Miller has been making costumes for the ending community procession on February 9. For more information, please visit deptofillumination.org/ice-box-schedule.