The Hang Man’s Game, 2014: tires, aluminum truss, felted rope, variety of tree seeds, plaster, steel pipe. Thanks to Wayne Baerwaldt, the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, and The Canada Council For The Arts
‘The Hang Man’s Game’ is a succinct update: a tower of tyres, a pipe, a noose—an aboriginal braided noose. ‘Snowbear’ was a woman I did not know. She was a woman I had heard about her just before I saw Susan’s installation. She was homeless, her land and life desecrated, not dissimilar to the indigenous folks of the southeastern corner of Ohio, USA, coal country. She was found hung by the neck in a tree on the southern bank of the Clearwater River, her leg’s had been hacked off. The Clearwater and Athabasca rivers converge in the epicenter of the Canadian oil sand “play”. The “play” has hung a noose on more than a few and more than a few are yet to come. — Grant Henry, a resident, educator, canoeist, and activist in Fort McMurray for 35 years.