The First 10 Years

It was by sheer luck, or a bit of fate, that I had this opportunity of working at AKA Artist run center 50 years after it was founded in 1971. Wanting to commemorate this grand anniversary, I looked through the archives at the University of Saskatchewan for a piece of history that spoke to me. Instantly, I found an admiration for the quirky and alternate styles of the Shoestring Gallery; the art collective before it became AKA in 1982. Looking through these half-century old scrapbooks, I felt renewed, comforted, as if I was already part of this collective. A show based entirely around carrots in 1973. Marilyn Monroe caricatures in 1981. 13 in a Pack. Brown bag luncheon artist talks every Friday in 1979. Group shows, member shows and visiting artists. Welcome back shows every time the collective had to relocate. An abundance of ideas and programs in ten years’ time. This piece of work animates the programming of each of the Shoestring Gallery’s three previous locations, where each video represents a location of the Shoestring Gallery throughout 1971-1981. In each video the years slide in, then out again, forever looping; as if they are forever tied to that time and place. *all archives used in this project are physically located at the University of Saskatchewan Archives*