Provisions

Mercer Union: Centre for Contemporary Art, Toronto, 1999

​This project took a wry look at the Y2K fervour brought about by the fear of technological collapse at the turn of the millennium. The artist transformed the gallery into a bunker/laboratory where she made candles and assembled "survival kits" that each viewer was invited to take away. A 16mm film loop of fireworks was a backdrop to this tableau that projected the contradictory idea of celebrating impending doom.

Viewers are urged to pick up a " provision" which on the surface seems free. Actually, these end-of-the-world souvenirs are embedded with a reciprocal obligation to consider issues of production and nationalism. As people move through the space, the supply of kits is depleted in a production and consumption countdown...Kathryn Walter's "kits" send up a certain tourist trap fatalism. Her "provisions" are fully loaded with the warm fuzzy felt of Canadiana...Armed with this Y2K survival kit, we will march to the end when the chariots thunder down into eternal darkness of doomed technology.

(excerpt from exhibition essay by Judith Doyle)

​This project was supported by Canada Council for the Arts