Ice Follies 2006

Lise Beaudry, Video Ice Hut #1, 2006

Materials: Borrowed ice hut, video monitor, DVD player, colored pencils, and furniture

Lise Beaudry repurposed an existing and functional ice hut to house an audiovisual display documenting her own experience of ice fishing with her family. The work included a small bare monitor that the artist mounted onto the unadorned plywood interior of the hut. The monitor displayed a continuous loop showing the typical ice fishing scene of her family with a soundtrack of them in casual friendly conversation. The audio was available in both French and English according to the speaker’s mother tongue and it showed how the sport of ice-fishing is different in different communities.

Working together, the three components: the video, the audio installation, and the ice hut, addressed the modes of social behavior and everyday experience that are informed by particular Canadian cultural contexts and geography. The piece encouraged feedback and visitors were invited to write down their own experiences,  posting them along the walls of the hut as a communal gesture.

Artist Bio:

Lise Beaudry, originally from Earlton, a rural Francophone community in Northern Ontario, lived in Toronto where during the time of Ice Follies where she was completing her MFA at York University. Her photographic work has been exhibited in several Canadian cities, the U.S, Romania, and Arles, France during Les Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie. In 2002, her first video: Le TOURBILLON won her Best Upcoming Toronto Video/Filmmaker at the INSIDE OUT FILM FESTIVAL as well as the Audience Award at the Dublin Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. This short has now toured to 26 festivals in Canada, the US, and Europe. In 2003, she co-founded AlleryJaunt – local art in local garages – a Toronto alternative annual art event transforming the back alley garages surrounding Trinity Bellwoods Park into venues that showcase visual art, installations, performance, and film & video.