Postcards from the End / Dirty Loonie, 2012 / 2009

Sarah Beck - Saskatoon, Canada

Interactive Installation, Kinetic Sculpture

Postcards from the End are three sculptural postcards viewers pose with to commemorate their visit to Museum for the End of the World. Postcard popularity rose with the dawn of tourism and photography. Postcards were collected and shared as memories. Today we share and collect photos with communication devices. Our increased ability to document spectacles makes it possible to personalize photos by posing in them, proving our presence at an event. Postcards from the End blends photo-ops with disaster to explore their intersection. Rubbernecking and disaster can be a deadly combination, yet images help document, communicate and makes sense of events.

Dirty Loonie is a kinetic sculpture resembling an oil derrick. The derrick is topped by a Canada Loon repeatedly bobbing its beak in and out of a barrel, sloshing oil over the edge. Dirty Loonie invokes this humor and recognition, examining the playthings of Capital production. As Canada proudly trades Loonies on the international market, do we think about the bird's relationship with our money? After all – there are far more Loonies than Loons in Canada. Dirty Loonie is absurd yet direct, inviting the viewer to witness the destruction of the Loon through the creation of commodity.

Sarah Beck uses her art practice to act as a social barometer and cultural activist. The primary objective of her practice is to address contemporary issues, engaging the audience with humour and common signifiers. Frequent themes in her work are ecology, economy and community. Beck is a Saskatchewan artist working in Toronto. Over the last decade she has exhibited her work, gaining recognition both nationally and internationally. She has won various awards, including the Canada Council for the Art’s Joseph S. Stauffer Prize.

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Toronto City Hall, underground parking garage, 100 Queen Street West (Accessible from entrance ramp on Bay Street. Wheelchair accessible via "SEAL" elevator on Nathan Phillips Square.)

This project is indoors.