The Duck Memorial Gallery

Samuel Miraoso

by Samuel Miraoso Opening Reception is Friday, July 9th from 7 to 10pm Exhibition runs July 9 to 30, 2010 in the UAS main gallery Gallery hours: Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 4pm. 319 - 10th Avenue SW - use alley entrance. On April 28, 2008, one thousand six hundred and six ducks,mallards and buffleheads, landed on the Aurora tailings pond, a lake of toxic waste and contaminated water, the residue from oil sands mining operations. Most of the flock died within minutes. Wildlife officers, arriving at the scene hours after the incident, fired a shotgun at many of the survivors deemed too damaged to rescue. They witnessed poisoned ducks, helpless under the weight of mining waste, being devoured alive by soon-to-be-poisoned crows. Five ducks survived the tragedy. Three were flown by private jet to Edmonton for clean up. The Duck Memorial Gallery consists of one thousand six hundred and six origami ducks folded from 5" squares of coloured paper - five being the number of surviving ducks. Folding began on Remembrance Day 2009, and was completed on April 28, 2010, the second anniversary of the ducks' death. Included with the memorial are instructions for folding a paper duck and a letter sent to Tom Katinas, President & CEO of Syncrude - the company responsible for the Auroro tailings pond - inviting him to visit my apartment and fold ducks with me. When arranged together the ducks cover an area of approximately 7'x 9'. eir size and number permits multiple arrangement options Artist Statement The Duck Memorial Gallery is a long-term meditative engagement with paper squares; an endeavor that interferes with daily routine until it becomes a day-to-day practice. Duck folding as everyday, creating representations of death as everyday. My practice as a multi-disciplinary artist often examines, both directly and indirectly, the politics of discomfort. Though the Duck Memorial Gallery is not intended as a protest, it is impossible to construct the memorial and avoid the politics of the oil sands or the toxic reality of the tailings ponds. The memorial presents death as a myriad of delicate, brightly coloured papers, a sharp contrast to the uniformly coloured ducks covered in tailings. Moreover, the time-line of the project, November 11 to April 28, associates the ducks with wars' dead, and that often cited pronouncement,"Lest we forget." And, of course, it draws association with Sadako Sasaki's story, Sadako and the One Thousand Paper Cranes. The Duck Memorial Gallery, quietly and delicately, calls attention to the tailings ponds and their uncomfortable existence. For more information about all gallery exhibitions, please contact our Gallery Attendant at attendant@untitledart.org