In 2014, Parisian curator Ami Barak invited Workparty to create a work at city hall that related to the theme of Readymades for Toronto’s Nuit Blanche. Workparty took the opportunity to respond to and comment on the infamous behaviour of the mayor at the time. The idea for the resulting piece, ‘The Little People’, came from a bite-sized news item in The Guardian newspaper (UK, January 2012) about a ‘Kindertoy’ protest in Russia organized in defiance of a recent ban on human demonstrations. The ‘toys’ were also deemed to be in violation of the law and arrested. Workparty’s installation consisted of 50 running feet of densely packed brightly colored Kindertoys with subtle streams of evolutionary, political, ecological, tongue-in-cheek narratives. Signs saying ‘Not Good Enough’ offered a commentary on the power elites, on the Canadian political situation at the time, and on the destruction of the natural environment. For this Pop Up Downtown version Workparty worked, in part, in consultation with Colonization No More – Solidarity Camp Regina who are calling for action to help indigenous communities across the country who are suffering from the crises of colonization. An open call through social media has also provided an opportunity for other local groups and individuals to voice their concerns.

“Dead Reckoning is the process of estimating one’s current position based upon a previously determined position. The driest part of the Canadian prairies is often referred to as the Palliser Triangle. This area is named for a nineteenth century explorer who first described a roughly triangular area which he felt was poorly suited for farming. Palliser described this triangular area as desert or semi-desert, which could never be expected to become occupied by settlers. The survey took place between 1857 and 1860. The area is north of the American border, bound on the east by Cartwright, Manitoba, Lloydminister, Saskatchewan to the north, and by Calgary and Cardston, Alberta to the west. Obviously Palliser’s recommendations went unheeded. “The photos selected for this Pop Up Downtown installation were taken in downtown Regina between 1985-1987.”

Place Shapes is about urban growth, urban boundaries, neighbourhoods, community and walkable cities. Place Shapes is
a scale representation of Regina’s current downtown neighborhood boundary in relation to the proposed growth plan boundary for the new area of Regina called ‘City Centre.’ The piece is made of two-colour neon tubing fabricated by Saskatoon neon craftsperson Chris Messett. Place Shapes can, at first glance, be seen as an abstract artwork, an outline of two shapes utilizing form and colour. Not until further investigation may the viewer realize it is a relational comparison of two actual areas of Regina.

“Regina is currently in the process of a community growth plan to manage the projected population increase of the city. Over the past 25 years Regina has grown by 30,000 people and over the next 25 years the city is projecting an increased growth of 100,000 people. The forecast is for the population of the City of Regina to grow to 300,000 by the year 2035. Part of this growth plan includes the current Regina Downtown area. ‘City Centre’ is an identified new area of Regina that includes the current Regina Downtown along with surrounding neighbourhoods, and is planned to include 10,000 new residents through intensification (defined as development, redevelopment, infill and expansion or conversion of existing buildings). My intent with this piece is to encourage dialogue and interest in urban boundaries and growth plans, both in general and specifically to the city of Regina.”

“I have always enjoyed creating an experience for an audience that allows them to participate. Previously this has resulted in giving audiences specific instructions for creating sounds for live film screenings. Recently I realized that I could give an audience something to do by using videogame software to create an experience far more unique. This has resulted in games designed for various art events including a friend’s birthday party. Going forward I will be creating more site-specific games that allow the audience to be as much a part of the work as my input.”

“This work is a re-creation of my navigation through downtown Regina in videogame form. The locations represented in this game may look familiar to many. Each ‘level’ or scene is representative of navigation routes anyone can take to get to work, home or elsewhere. Although there are many ways to get to a destination there are often minor obstacles in the way such as potholes, sidewalk construction or empty parking lots. Using videogame and motion-tracking software I have created likenesses of these features. This speaks to the theme of Pop Up Downtown, Walking: Bodies in Urban Space, by drawing the attention of the audience to the environment around them through gamifying the spaces they see on a day-to-day basis.”

“We travel away from the familiar in order to discover our true selves.  We take a walk to clear our heads.  We move through the city to engage with society and to participate in its spectacle. This reflexive relationship between self and city are found in the reflective surface of windows, the looming physical envelopes of buildings, the push/pull of arterial streets, as well as our idealism and the framing contrast of the ‘natural’ spaces beyond.

“My work explores the construction of identity through the appropriation and disruption of social patterns and familiar gestures. I borrow heavily from the canons and traditions of history, both the artistic and the quotidian, in order to use the familiar as a meeting point with the viewer.

“To create this installation, I ‘visited’ Regina with virtual walking tours through Google Maps, begetting a fractured and unreliable concept of the urban space. The city has been mapped in repetition and reconstructed in this installation to mimic decor motifs and the structures of domestic space. As an outsider/tourist, I have worked with preconceived notions and digitally mined data to create a pattern based on my own sense of the downtown’s enclosures and expanses. I conflated my identity and identifications on to this ersatz construction, and shape my self-portraits as a flâneur, a ‘stroller’ and observer of city life.”

Harrow has completed artist residencies in Scotland and acrossCanada. Her work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, China, and Thailand. Belinda lives and works in Regina and is represented by Slate Gallery.

For Pop Up Downtown Harrow looks specifically at the jackrabbits that live in downtown Regina. These rabbits live in the periphery of our spaces, in our architectural gaps, moving about at dusk and dawn to avoid attention. We occasionally glimpse movement or a track left in the snow but for the most part their presence goes without notice. We navigate our lives within the city, moving about to self-imposed codes of conduct within socially defined parameters while animals conform and adjust around us, maintaining an uneasy harmony. This herd of plaster rabbits is gathered together frozen in time, on display for us to appreciate and admire at our own convenience. “Over the last ten years animals have had a strong presence in my artistic practice. I am particularly interested in that precarious area where human and animal habits/habitats overlap. As our human populations grow and spread animals adapt and change. Migratory patterns, feeding habits and even mating behaviours are disrupted. It is my hope that through the art I create, the viewer may see the animal as a subject whose study might reveal something of the human condition.”