Paƛšiʔaƛma (The Fire is Just Starting) applies two traditions common in British Columbia shacks, the European sauna and the First Nations smokehouse. Smoke, a by-product from the wood stove in the sauna portion of the structure, is captured and used to prepare food in the functional smokehouse.

Conceived to explore some of the mannerisms of living on the west coast, we’re not attempting to symbolically represent peaceful side-by-side coexistence or to find common ground. Rather, we want to facilitate interesting, weird and hopefully funny dialogue amongst diverse traditions and practices. To place this structure inside a mansion’s receiving room or a white gallery space gives rise to this aspect. In these spaces, the scent of cedar and smoked fish come to the forefront.

Influences: BC shacks, First Nations smokehouses, European-influenced backyard saunas, the tiny house movement, found cabins, the life cycle of cedar, net-zero energy, ground truth, new/odd approaches to stewardship, living off the land, living with a connection to the land, and the luxury of being warm in a cold wet climate in winter.

Materials : local cedar, local fir, steel, glass The majority of the sauna-smokehouse is made from rough-cut cedar and fir from two Port Alberni mills, including the historic steam-operated McLean’s Mill. This material was re-sawn, dressed and carefully placed in relation to its companions. The remaining materials were mostly scavenged but also carefully considered. No glue was used. The stove was mail-ordered from Manitoba; these types of stoves are sometimes called “hippie burners.”

Stewardship: The work is informed by a long tradition of living off the oceans and lands. The smokehouse was an integral part of coexisting with the oceans. That tradition is thousands of years old. The design of the sauna addresses a simple yet effective approach to light and heat, using only a glass pane for light and a stove that can make the room very hot with just a few branches.

Modular Design: The Sauna/Smokehouse is modular, able to be broken down and moved. It is also very light; most walls can be lifted by two people. This design approach is part of our ongoing attempt to make work with simple, accessible, and few tools, creating very little waste and/or re-usable by-products.

Tiny House Series: This work is our second exploration in a series of tiny houses that engage Canadian art history alongside the work and ideas of our time. The intention is to be playful and continue in our study of tiny houses and their functionality, the ideas of doing more with less, and applying narrative aspects to the concept and construction of these small buildings.

INSTALLATIONS

Circumference / Circumstance (intervention, with Gwen MacGregor November-December 2015)

Paƛšiʔaƛma (The Fire is Just Starting) was created on the invitation to intervene in Gwen MacGregor’s exhibition, Circumference, which works with Jock MacDonald’s diary while on Nootka Island. Gwen invited some questions about making cultural references (or not) in artworks across indigenous/non indigenous lines; and relationships to the land and its representation (also across indigenous/non indigenous lines). This started a conversation that is ongoing.

Paƛšiʔaƛma (The Fire is Just Starting) works with two forces quietly present in the diary of Jock MacDonald during his year on Nootka Island, when he made the breakthrough in his work towards abstraction. The first is his wife, Barbara Niece MacDonald, whose contribution to that year and that work shouldn’t be understated. The second is the Mowachaht / Muchalaht First Nation, who not only modeled how to live off the land, but, present abstracted forms and concepts in their visual language. These presences are subtly acknowledged alongside the concepts of warmth and food security that the sauna-smokehouse embodies.

Paƛšiʔaƛma (The Fire is Just Starting) (exhibition, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria January - May 2016)

Paƛšiʔaƛma was then moved to the LAB Gallery at the AGGV. For this installation in the modern part of the Gallery, we papered the walls around the room with a black and white panorama taken on Mount Arrowsmith in Port Alberni. After a couple of months installed, the smell of smoke had lessened, allowing the salmon and cedar to come forward.

Paƛqiqas // Take A Fire and Make Another (public sauna + feast, May 14, 2016 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria)

Paƛqiqas was the closing event in Victoria, in which we installed Paƛšiʔaƛma outdoors, fired it up and invited the public to take a sauna and have a snack of food smoked in the smokehouse. Bathrobes were provided by Parkside Hotel and Spa, DJ OSHOW performed, ACCE Construction helped with take-down and removal. Many thanks to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria for this event.