‘Gothic’ Yellowknife art takes over PEI gallery for the summer

The northern lights, ravens and ptarmigans are common symbols in Yellowknife art. Sarah Swan is interested in northern art that tells a grittier truth. 

Yellowknife Forever! The Northern Gothic in Yellowknife – a show curated by Swan – will run from June 21 till September 29 at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown, PEI.

The show acknowledges the beauty of Yellowknife but also tells “gothic or supernatural stories with a bit of a gloomy edge,” Swan says.

The term northern gothic, coined by Swan, is based on the southern gothic literary genre. Southern gothic explores the deep American South, its eccentric characters, and various traumas that lurk below agrarian and pastoral scenes. Protagonists of the genre include “sharecroppers, farmers, ne’er-do-wells and religious characters,” Swan says. 

Swan argues that versions of these characters and traumas exist in Yellowknife, too. To her, northern gothic protagonists are “hunters or trappers, the misfits, mercenaries and missionaries that first populated this part of the world in a settler fashion.” Traumas of the northern gothic have to do with the “project of extinguishment that the government and the church carried out against Indigenous people,” Swan says. 

Perhaps the most important difference between the genres is that “where southern gothic is decidedly dark, northern gothic lets light through the cracks, reflecting Indigenous healing, sovereignty and power,” Swan says. 

The exhibition features art from Walt Humphries, Darrell Chocolate, Pat Kane, Mike Mitchell, Melaw Nakehk’o, Doomkitsch and Alison McCreesh. 

Dene artist Chocolate is often commissioned to paint portraits of the recently deceased. Chocolate’s piece in the exhibition features two female Elders who passed away several years ago. Swan describes the portraits as “beautiful, but in an atypical way.”

Nakehk’o is a Dehcho and Denesuline Dene hide tanner and artist who has produced a series of what Swan calls gothic soft sculptures. One of Nakehk’o’s pieces in the exhibition is a soft sculpture made from caribou hide. Swan says its red beading can resemble a stream of blood. While beautiful, the sculptures are also “a bit eerie and uncomfortable looking. A lovely addition to the gothic theme of the show,” Swan says. 

Mitchell, co-owner of Sapsucker Birch Syrup Company, created a replica of the hot dog carousel at Gastown Grill. Mitchell’s piece was seen previously at Yellowknife’s visitor centre in YellowknifeNOW! in 2022. The replica – hot dogs and all – is made of wood. Swan says the carousel is gothic in terms of its material, as it is “stuff you can find on the street and salvage from the dump.”

Other pieces include cyanotype paintings by McCreesh, anti-picturesque paintings by Humphries, photography of Yellowknife’s favourite anti-heroes by Kane and an obsessive ink drawing by Doomkitsch. 

Swan hopes Yellowknife Forever! can show southern Canadians the truth about the North.

While some people see northern Canada as “pristine wilderness, the last frontier left in the world, an untouched place.” Swan believes there’s more to Yellowknife.

“Our city is pretty scrappy, right? Not everyone appreciates that, but those who do understand the appeal, intrigue, beauty, and character of this place.” 

Hear more from Sarah Swan about Yellowknife Forever! on the Thursday, June 20 edition of Evenings With Elke on Cabin Radio. Tune in from 7pm till 9pm.