N&M History

THE NATURAL & THE MANUFACTURED

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Since 2005, this unique project in the far Canadian north has worked to stimulate and engage people in a re-examination of the various cultural and economic values imposed on the environment, while exploring alternative political, social, economic and aesthetic agendas and strategies towards a re-interpretation of the regional landscape and social infrastructure.

As a site of creation, as well as presentation, the N&M seeks to promote new research and creation projects with participating artists making works specifically for the project while in residence at KIAC’s Macaulay House studios. As such, this annual project explores issues related to site-specificity, as well as land-based and environmental art practices:  the meaning of geography and the geography of meaning, the ephemeral and the concrete, the transitory nature of “nature” and our philosophical need to resist and respond to it.

The Natural & The Manufactured is conceived as an ongoing, annual project to involve visual, media and interdisciplinary artists, curators, art historians, writers and cultural thinkers through residencies, exhibitions, lectures, essays and workshops.