Ice Follies (North Bay, Ontario)

home

ICE, WIND and COMBUSTION

ICE FOLLIES 2010 is COMING SOON!

This biennial exhibition of contemporary art on a frozen lake officially opens on February 13th on Lake Nipissing, Ontario

This coming February the W.K.P. Kennedy Public Art Gallery hosts the fourth biennial site-specific exhibition of new works by national and international artists. And this year we are “celebrating the spectacle” of our ice-covered Lake Nipissing. Yes, that’s correct, for this site-specific exhibition we are installing eight site-specific artworks that considered the environment or thematically reflected upon the idea of the ice fishing hut. The show features eight structures made by invited artists that will be positioned out on the ice just east of the government wharf near downtown North Bay and two artworks created by groups from North Bay.

“This year will be the most interactive, most activist Ice Follies yet…and the loudest,” says exhibition curator, Dermot Wilson, “With the inclusion of infamous West German artist, Dieter Schmeiger, the show will be truly international in scope and profile.” Several of the artists’ works comment on themes of spectacle and nature’s power as well as on how the community interacts with the lake in winter. The Gallery organizers and their ice consultants are hoping for good cold weather and ice that should be between three and four feet thick on the exhibition site for the duration of the month-long exhibition.

Back in 2004, the Gallery started off with the idea that the perfect place for a show about ice-fishing huts was in North Bay. Our city is right beside the vast white plain that is Lake Nipissing in the wintertime. We asked artists to create works that would use existing ice huts or decorate ice huts or incorporate ice huts as pedestals or mini-galleries or would “expand the notion of what an ice hut can be”. The artists responded in so many wonderful ways that those pieces have been seen in the National Gallery in Ottawa and as far away as Sao Paulo, Brazil and Geneva, Switzerland.

Ice Follies 2010 Artists

Itinerary

  • Tuesday, January 26th – Volunteer Orientation Meeting – Volunteers meet some of the artists and learn about the show and their tasks as volunteers
  • Tuesday, January 26th – City Council Presentation – A five-minute overview of this year’s biennial for the Town Councillors
  • Tuesday February 9th – Installation begins on the site signage and on installations
  • Friday, February 12th – All huts are either out on the ice or in position in the parking lot near the Rotary Gazebo
  • Friday, February 12th – 4 pm – PRESS CONFERENCE – At the Rotary Gazebo on the waterfront
  • Saturday, February 13th – 11am – Bus Tours of the installation start at 11 am. All installation in place and open for the public. Site brochures available in boxes at the site.
  • Saturday, February 13th – 7pm – ARTISTS BANQUET and ROAST – At Cecil's Eatery & Beer Society (Main St. and Wyld St., North Bay). Tickets $25 each, available at the door and the gallery office. All are welcome to come out for a fine HOT meal, a screening of Ice Follies videos and a discussion period with the artists after dinner.
  • Friday February 20th – 7pm – Kinebik & Arhnaq - performance by Aanmitaagzi Collective. Penny Couchie, Sid Bobb, Tanya Lukin-Linklater, and friends will be down at the lake to perform a new dance piece in response to the Follies and to address a theme of ice as the creator. The dance and movement piece will feature some contemporary takes on traditional seal-walking, throat-singing, lights, and sound.
  • March 20th – Ice Follies officially closes and ice huts are rstrongoved from the lake.
  • March 21st – Ice huts rstrongoved to storage facilities, owners, etc.

North Bay Ontario Ice Follies Nothern Ontario Tourism Navigation