Death of a River

2017
Pen and ink on archive watercolour paper
18” x 24”

Probably the darkest subject matter I have covered in a while; an active ongoing exploitation of a land, its resources, and its people.

The structure, as ugly as it is, is what's being built at Muskrat Falls, Labrador. A huge abomination of a hydro-electric project, the second on the Grand River... sorry, Churchill River...

A passage way for millennia, source of food and prosperity for those who called the area home.

I'll never forget when Joseph Goudie told me that his trip down river a few years back was going to be his last. I jokingly said gee Joe, you're too damn young to retire yet, and he replied with sadness that the trip would be impossible now with the dam happening...

I hope the ice breaks it, I hope the government goes bankrupt and cannot finish it, I hope...

I remember my father saying that after the mighty Churchill Falls was dammed, Rigolet lost all of its codfish and then that was the time the caribou all left for north... that was after one dam... now the second one is in place... is this the time the people will have to leave?

I hope not