KLONDIKE OSTEOBIOGRAPHIES

2015

Klondike Osteobiographies is a research-creation project combining audio storytelling, organic media sculpture, and web-based interactivity. Developed during a residency at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture, the work responds to the landscape, cultural history, and mythologies of the Dawson City region.

 

Using locally sourced biomaterials, including animal intestine, the project biomimetically constructs artificial bones through textile-based structural scaffolds combined with mineral crystal growth. These hybrid forms occupy a space between artifact and organism, suggesting speculative remains embedded within the environment. Each sculptural element is accompanied by an osteobiography—an audio narrative or “bone story”—collected through direct, person-to-person encounters and subsequently retold by the artist. These stories draw from and mutate local histories and mythologies, generating a layered narrative ecology that reflects the instability of memory, authorship, and place.

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Engaging with psychogeography and affective space, the project introduces uncanny objects into public and natural environments, subtly altering perception and experience. Through these interventions, Klondike Osteobiographies explores how landscapes are shaped by material presence, the organic circulation of stories, and imagined histories.

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The project was funded by Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec, with additional support from the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture and Parks Canada.