In the nineteenth century D’Arcy Island, a small island off the east coast of Vancouver Island was used by the city of Victoria to quarantine residents diagnosed with leprosy after the discovery of the disease in a few people in 1891. The exhibition D’Arcy Island is part of a larger project, Carceral Landscape, which is concerned with the use of landscape as a device for human incarceration. The idea of Carceral Landscape was germinated by photographer Ansel Adams’s belief that the sublime beauty of the natural environment surrounding the internment camp at Manzanar, California inspired and helped Japanese American internees transcend their detention during WWII. D’Arcy Island critically considers the use of an island as a site of detention or banishment.
Social history is inextricably tied to natural history and Lethbridge artist Don Gill's investigations have produced a convergence of the two; often evolving into case studies which the artist documents through photography, text, video and installation. His practice has been one of critical questioning based on explorations of specific sites and their social histories; these sites are often in proximity to where he finds himself geographically. He is currently a Visiting Research Professor at Trent University in Peterborough.
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