dis/comfort
Fairbanks/Alaska
20. – 31.10.2025 UAF Art Gallery
How does dis/comfort materialize in the North?
Through a call for submissions and by invitation, dis/comfort asks how Northern identity, colonialism, and climate change can be imagined and interpreted through layers of comfort and discomfort.
Artists share encounters and intimacies with the North through video, photography, carving, embroidery, an interactive card game, a protest poem, and two-dimensional works printed on photo transparencies. A range of experiences and stories unfold, asking viewers to consider their own comfort and reflect on the broader contexts of how dis/comfort shapes living in and visiting the North.
In this group exhibition my video the open show(er) is on display.
The absurdity of this clip lies in its mix of comfort and discomfort: the weather is clearly cold, yet there is enough hot water in Iceland to keep a shower running endlessly in the middle of nowhere— even with a sink for brushing your teeth (wonder where the mirror has gone). It is free of everything: no charge, no curtain.
The cataloque of the exhibition can be seen and downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-iP_Dha1MhDl7sj6P_ZfZgv8c0Y9i-cC/view
Featured artists: Kelsey Aho, Catherine Baumhauer, Mia Bennett, Anna Berrino, Minik Bidstrup, Ada Pilar Cruz, Vincent DeZutti, Mel Durrett, Eley, Lena Johansson Fahlén, Erin Ggaadimits Ivalu Gingrich, Somer Hahm, Wen-Hsi Harman, Loes Heebink, Julia Hechtman, Katelin Hiller, Sarah Mehl Histand, Birte Hoelscher, Jenny Irene, Nadia Jackinsky-Sethi, Gali Kaner, Ashley G. Kidner, Nina Sikkersoq Kristoffersen, Sandra Kruisbrink, Salla Kuoppamaa and Teuta Pashnjari, Rosalind Lowry, Klara Maisch, Alia Malley, Kathleen Menke, David McCain, Jérémie McGowan and Amund Sjølie Sveen, Clay Mohrman, Ellen Mueller, Andrea L. Nelson, Aaron Olson-Reiners, Daniel Papke, Austin Parkhill, Claire Paugam, Laura Prochilo, Ela Przybyło, Kimberly Ritchie, Andrew Schwartz, Mikhail Siskoff, Clint Sleeper, Marte Lill Somby, Essie Somma, Liz Toohey-Wiese, James Westwater, Madeline Witek, Suz Yeremyan, Heejoon June Yoon
This exhibition is part of the research of Katie Ione Craney in the Arctic & Northern Studies MA program at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks.