Read "Camp Zero" by Michelle Min Sterling and then participate in a book discussion at the Sarnia Library and a tour of the Dark Ice exhibition at the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery.
The Art and Books Club is a collaboration between Lambton County Library and Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery. Books are specially selected for this club to complement themes which appear in current exhibitions at the JNAAG. Participants of the book club are supplied with a copy of the book available to pick up at the Sarnia Library and invited to a group discussion which is followed by a private tour at the gallery. Inquire with the library for digital, audio, or large print options.
Camp Zero
America, 2049: Summer temperatures are intolerably high, the fossil fuel industry has shut down, and humans are implanted with a 'Flick' at birth, which allows them to remain perpetually online. The top echelons of society live in Floating Cities off the coast, while people on the mainland struggle to survive. For Rose, working as a hostess in the city's elite club feels like her best hope for a better future. When a high-profile client offers Rose a job as an escort at a fledgling company in northern Canada called Camp Zero--a source of fresh, clean air and cool temperatures--in return for a home for her displaced mother and herself, she accepts it. But in the north, all is not as it seems. Through skillfully entwined perspectives, including a young professor longing to escape his wealthy family and a group of highly trained women engaged in climate surveillance at a Cold War era research station, the fate of the Camp and its inhabitants comes into stunning relief. Atmospheric, original, and utterly gripping, Camp Zero interrogates the seductive and chilling notion of a utopia; asks who and what will survive as global tensions rise; and imagines how love may sustain us.
Dark Ice October 4, 2024 – March 16, 2025
Dark Ice demonstrates the intersections between the unique artistic, studio, and land-based practices of Leslie Reid of Ottawa, ON, and Robert Kautuk of Kangiqtugaapik (Clyde River), NU. Alongside critical curatorial work, the exhibition features photographs, paintings and videos of Arctic land and ice, and of communities and their experiences.
Together, these two artists create meaningful research and visualizations that foster diversified perspectives around climate change. Kautuk and Reid’s collaboration combines their experiences to develop a dialogue that maps the Arctic and offers a promising path forward in the face of global warming.
This exhibition is organized and circulated by the Ottawa Art Gallery and curated by Rebecca Basciano.
