Interview with Mike Mitchell: Yellowknife Forever!

Gallery Blog

Over the next few months, we’re in conversation with artists, curators, and others regarding our current exhibitions at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. 

This week, we chat with Mike Mitchell, a multimedia artist from Yellowknife, NWT, about his practice and artwork in the exhibition Yellowknife Forever! The exhibition is at the CCAG until October 13th. 

Through the work of yourself and the other artists, the “Yellowknife Forever!” exhibition reveals unique interpretations and perspectives of the Northwest Territories. How are your own lived experiences reflected in your artwork?  

MM: I like to describe my art as wood jokes, and I sincerely hope people find them funny. But don’t be fooled by the light-heartedness. This is protest art. What am I protesting? Usually things that are overdone, overexposed or under-thought. Like yoga, Instagram selfies, photos of northern lights and food snobbery. The hot dog carousel on display in ‘Yellowknife Forever’ isn’t high art precisely because it celebrates low brow eats. Also, because it’s made of plywood from the dump. 

Jerry Seinfeld nailed my kind of protest when he said: ‘’as much as you might feel the pain of things you hate or think are bad, there is another perspective and that is: this is so ridiculous!  Ridiculous. And let’s joke about it. 

 There is often a dash of ridicule to my ridiculous. Hopefully just the right amount? 

The Northern territories are often underrepresented to wider art audiences in Canada. What is something you hope visitors will take away from this exhibition?  

MM: Yellowknife and PEI both have shorthand stand-ins for our communities. For you: Anne and potatoes. For us: aurora borealis, fluffy ptarmigan and (dwindling) caribou. The longhand version of the Northwest Territories, though, is a much more interesting story. It still contains elements of these tropes, of course, but seen through the eyes of those who live there.  Yellowknife Forever provides a glimpse of this long-hand North. Exhibit curator Sarah Swan chose seven ‘northern gothic’ artists whose work is often set against a ‘wild’ northern background, sure, but with humans squarely in the frame. Or just off camera.  I like this exhibit because it introduces visitors to some less-conventional NWT art and artists and reminds us that people are part of the ecosystem, too. Even weirdos., Getting to know the characters that inhabit a place is how we come to know its true(r) character.         

Your piece “Dogwood” embodies the distinctiveness of Northern Gothic style. Did you draw on any similarities from other time periods or eras (ie. The Wild West)? 

MM: No, I wasn’t thinking of the Wild West when I made my ‘sculpture’ but I wish I had!  What a great comparison. Like right out of Back to the Future 3 (the one set in 1885): hot dog carousel as a space-age machine retrofitted to match its low-fi, frontier surroundings.  That’s what I’m going to start telling people from now on – “yes of course, ‘Dogwood’ is wild west steamie-punk (or steamé, because that’s a French-Canadian synonym for hot dog)”. 

There is an element of time travel to this piece though; to my whole outlook on life. Years ago, I read about sailor/historian Tim Severin who crossed the Atlantic in an ox-hide boat, recreating the voyage of a 6th century Irish monk. When equipment broke on his expedition, it was invariably made of plastic; the stuff of wood and leather didn’t fail. I continue to be inspired by Tim and similar backwards-looking time travelers, in particular his endorsement of traditional materials. I also don’t know how to weld, so wood it is. 

Mike Mitchell is a Yellowknife-based Olympic hopeful and multi-media artist (he makes wood sculptures and T-shirts i.e. two media). Highlights of his recent trip to PEI include digging for clams, the Potato Museum’s display of blights and the kiddie roadside lemonade stand just west of Coleman.