exhibition catalogue and essay

Utilizing the artist’s collection of photographs, drawings, prose, archival materials, and objects, WORKHORSE is a survey of place.

This project explores the complex socio-economic conditions of living and working in a mining town, the politics of resource extraction and its effects on the body, as well as the place of the individual within a relentless and global natural resource extraction industry.

Labrador City is an isolated mining town in Canada’s sparsely populated eastern subarctic region, where iron ore extraction dictates the local economy, wealth manifests in bizarre and unsettling ways, and where whispers of organized crime circulate regularly. Labrador City is not the only town with a strong corporate presence, it represents a myriad of company towns across North America.

Labrador City was built on a utopian dream of becoming more than just a camp town. The amount of iron in the ground meant that this venture wouldn’t simply be a quick exploitation project where workers would drop in and out, but a modern, beautiful town where working men could bring their wives and raise their children in a pleasant environment with modern facilities. In changing times of globalization and increased industrialization, many towns just like Labrador City have traversed the extremes of a volatile market, with it’s utopian dreams long abandoned.