Duane Linklater, Pretty Girl, 2017, HD video with sound, 13:22 minutes. Courtesy of the Artist and Catriona Jeffries Gallery.
All music courtesy of John Rodrique; Youtube video courtesy of Oskino Kat.
A YouTube video of a 1991 performance by the late John Rodrique and his accompanying band performing his seminal James Bay rock classic, Pretty Girl, stands as a point of departure for this new project. Posted by YouTube user Oskiniko Kat in 2007, it has since garnered more than 100,000 views. Considered a beloved regional hit, Duane Linklater reimagines a new possibility and circulation for this beautiful song.
Duane Linklater is Omaskêko Cree, from Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario and is currently based in North Bay, Ontario. He holds an MFA from the Milton Avery Graduate School of Arts at Bard College. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, including in exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery; Family Business Gallery, New York City; Te Tuhi Centre for Arts, Auckland, New Zealand; City Arts Centre, Edinburgh, Scotland; Institute of Contemporary Arts, Philadelphia; Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City; and most recently at the the SeMa Biennale in Seoul and at 80WSE Gallery in New York. His collaborative film project with Brian Jungen, Modest Livelihood (2012), was originally presented at the Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre as a part of dOCUMENTA (13) with subsequent exhibitions at the Logan Centre Gallery at the University of Chicago and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Linklater was the recipient of the 2013 Sobey Art Award and is currently represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver.