HELEN YOUNG

(she/her)

Helen Young is a visual artist residing in Calgary, AB. She graduated from The Alberta University of the Arts in 2009 with a degree in Print Media, and has since maintained her practice and presence in the local arts community. Helen currently uses textiles, clay, drawing and animation to explore ideas of self and characteristics of the people and world around her. Outside of her visual art practice, Helen is a musician, a radio programmer and the Music & Performance Director at CJSW Radio. 

LUX EXTERIOR

Inspired by the drabness of the hard, cold concrete landscape of the parking lot, Lux Exterior juxtaposes a space generally occupied by metal machines with the presence of an obnoxiously bright, soft vehicle. The presence of Lux Exterior will surely encourage a perplexed smile on the face of the viewer, as its personality makes itself known in this vast environment.

Special thanks to Gail Garden for piloting LUX EXTERIOR!

JENNIE SIMM

(she/her)

Jennie Simm is an award-winning multi-disciplinary visual artist, magazine publisher, production designer and arts educator of Japanese-Canadian descent from Calgary, Alberta. An alumni of both AUArts (BFA) and Emily Carr University (MFA) her production work has spanned across industries including designing theatrical stages, special effects for TV/film (IATSE 212) and exhibiting installation-based artworks across North America. In addition to her own art practice, she also teaches at both AUArts and U of C Faculty of Art as sessional faculty and was the Museum School Coordinator at Glenbow Museum (before closing for renovations). Jennie has co-founded several arts organizations including arts collective Big Kitty Crew, production studio Studio Cartel (2012-2017) and Big Kitty Magazine which is one of her main focuses of her current work. Big Kitty Magazine is a bi-monthly arts, music and local culture magazine available in print at over 300 locations in inner-city Calgary and digital magazine. 

THE JAPANESE POTATO TRUCK

 Don’t miss your chance to get your paws on a world-famous stuffed Japanese-Canadian potato… Alberta grown! And meet the Potato Princess… true potato royalty! 

The Japanese Potato Truck is inspired by the story of the artist’s family, the Ohamas – dispossessed and forcibly relocated onto the prairies from the west coast during the Japanese internment. Uprooted from metropolitan Vancouver, the Ohama family had to learn to farm the harsh Southern Alberta prairies and fight for the return of civil rights of Japanese-Canadians after the war, including the right to own land. After finally acquiring their own farms in Rainier, Alberta, the Ohama brothers (Tona + George) proudly drove to Calgary with a truckload full of their first harvest – however they returned to the farm with not a single potato sold, as no one would buy Japanese potatoes. While disheartened by the prejudice, the Ohama brothers were not deterred and kept farming- eventually winning several awards for their potatoes including being named ‘Potato King of the World’ in 1965 and recognized as pioneers of the Alberta potato industry. Over 70 years later, George Ohama’s grand-daughter Jennie Simm is bringing her own truckload of stuffed Japanese potatoes and spud swag to parking lots across Calgary on May 24 + 25 as part of Idle Worship. 

$1 from each potato is being donated to Tsuru for Solidarity 

Tsuru for Solidarity is a non-profit organization founded by survivors and descendents of the Japanese American internment that advocates to end detention sites and support directly impacted immigrant and refugee communities that are being targeted by racist, inhumane immigration policies.

KHALID OMOKANYE

(he/him)

Khalid Omokanye is a Calgary-based artist, designer, and educator whose interdisciplinary work spans architecture, sculpture, and installation. He holds a Master of Architecture and a BA with minors in architecture, communication, and visual arts. His practice explores the relationship between form, material, and narrative, blending conceptual design with hands-on construction.

Khalid teaches at the University of Calgary’s School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, where he focuses on narrative-driven design and physical making. His recent projects include ISOLATED BABEL, a collaborative sculpture created during the COVID-19 pandemic for The Hibernation Project, and Clean Ya Tracks, a mobile sculpture featured in IDLE WORSHIP, which reflects on car culture and environmental impact.

He is the founder and Managing Director of The Artist Lounge, a hybrid venue combining art exhibitions, cocktails, and conversation, located within the Ruberto Ostberg Gallery. His evolving practice is grounded in experimentation, storytelling, and cross-disciplinary dialogue.

AUTO FETISH

Playing on the dual meaning of auto-fetish (“Self Fetish” and “Fetishizing the Automobile), Auto-Fetish is a provocative mixed-media installation that situates an automobile engine—the mechanical heart of modern mobility—within a peepshow-style booth, inviting viewers to engage with the object as both spectacle and surrogate. The work draws a conceptual link between industrial fetishism and the erotic gaze, transforming a symbol of power, speed, and masculinity into a performer in a darkened, voyeuristic setting.

Visitors enter a dimly lit space and approach individual viewing ports. Inside the booth, the engine is bathed in soft, seductive lighting. It periodically revs to life, responding to sensor-activated cues from viewers. The low throb and mechanical growl serve as both auditory stimulation and commentary on the anthropomorphized desires society projects onto machines.

By placing the engine—typically hidden beneath the hood and valued for utility—into a performative, objectified context, Auto-Fetish interrogates the eroticism embedded in car culture and the way industrial objects are imbued with identity, status, and gendered desire. The peepshow format implicates the audience in an intimate act of looking, challenging them to consider their own complicity in the commodification of objects and bodies.

LOGAN LAPE

(he/him)

Logan Lape is an artist who is engaged in the ways that people relate to the places they are in. His projects tend to show up in alternative sites like parking lots, backyards, remote landscapes, and travel trailers; as well as in galleries such as The Kitchen, NYC; Mana Contemporary, NJ and IL; and Grounds for Sculpture, NJ. Since 2022, he has organized and hosted the backyard project space in a greenhouse in Calgary, Alberta. He has a BFA from a small college in Nevada that no longer exists and an MFA from one of those big art schools in New York City.

FUNNEL VISION

Our sense of compression and expansion in the vehicular landscape is created through the visual and spatial experience of transitioning between confined and spacious areas. This ever-shifting focus between our bodily enclosure within the vehicle and visual openness outside it is present when traversing vast river valleys along the highway, dipping under train lines downtown, or simply merging in and out of traffic. The primary point of negotiation between the interior and exterior is the windshield.

Funnel Vision is an extension of the windshield frame, compressing and expanding as it stretches out the back of the vehicle. Referencing camera aperture and travel trailer in its construction, the hourglass structure converges and reflects our view of the outside environment. Through this sculptural form, we might find ways to project ourselves out into the same landscape that is focused upon us.

NIKKI KLAWUAHBOE & LANE SHORDEE

(she/they & he/him)

Nikki Klawuahboe is an artist and educator of Grebo, Mennonite and Celtic heritage. They are the founder of Plein Air Outdoor Arts, a nature-based art program, and (co-founder of) The General Store, an ongoing performative installation questioning economics. Martens makes use of pedagogy to explore relationships within the self, with each other, and with the more-than-human world. She gratefully recognizes the people, flora, fauna, fungi and elements of Treaty 7, her adopted home.

Lane Shordee is an artist based in Calgary/Mohkinstsis on Treaty 7 territory. He holds a BFA in drawing from the Alberta University of the Arts (2010). He is currently a Master of Fine Arts student in set design at the University of Calgary.

In his theatre, sculpture, and public artworks, Lane employs reclaimed and repurposed materials to investigate the fields of urban ecology and economics. Notable projects include: Lead artist on The Wandering Island, a public art project located on Elbow Island in collaboration with Caitlind rc Brown and Wayne Garrett alongside The City of Calgary. Set Design for Undressed at Alberta Theatre Projects, written and performed by Louise Casemore. Puppet builder for The Ghost Opera, created by The Old Trout Puppet Workshop in co-production with Calgary Opera and Banff Centre for the Arts. Set designer/builder for Mudfoot Theatre, a company that creates humble magic and sustainable theatre practices.

AUTO BODY

Buckle up folks, because your cognition is no longer in the driver’s seat. Auto Body celebrates the seemingly involuntary, automatic functions of your body: the joys of burping and orgasm, uninvited skin eruptions and convulsions ~ that hiccup high you just can’t get enough of. From what deep recesses do these somatic impulses emerge? Why here? Why now? And who’s driving this thing anyways?

Let artists, Nikki Klawuahboe and Lane Shordee take you for a rip in this work of fart. 

PATRICK HAMILTON

(he/him)

Patrick Hamilton is a Calgary/Mohkinstsis based visual & musical artist working in the mediums of sculpture, mural, and mixed media. Their practice explores pop cultures past

and present. His work describes the intersection between fine art and corporate/capital culture and aesthetics. It is referential to golden age capitalist visuals such as Fleischer cartoons and the 1960’s American auto industry.

SLIMY SCROLL

Slimy Scroll is an homage to the experience of endlessly perusing the classifieds and “Buy and Sells” looking for vehicles. From my previous home of Whitehorse, YT scrolling the listings in Calgary specifically gave us a sense of wonder painting an image of the city as a land o’ plenty; A money flush utopia where a ten year car was considered a relic and could be scooped up for use in the Yukon. For this piece a newly created uncanny scroll displays on a screen providing an opportunity for the piece’s subject (a slimy figure) to look for a new vehicle while present at the surrounding scene of our “slime-tagonist”s (slimy protagonist) freshly broken down vehicle.

RAMIN ESHRAGHI-YAZDI

(he/him)

Ramin Eshraghi-Yazdi is a film-based storyteller, improvisational performer, and documentarian living in Calgary and Montreal. He guides his practice with an empathic eye, open curiosity, and a collaborative approach, inviting subjects into the process of telling their own stories. Through his company, Nur Films, Ramin has directed, edited, and produced six feature-length films (one narrative and five documentaries), numerous narrative shorts, music videos, mini-docs, two seasons of a sketch comedy show, and a music variety series. Whether working with fact, fiction, or something in-between, Ramin makes films in relationship with communities, holding time for diverse people to share compelling tales never told before.

RIDE SHARE

Buckle up. Ride Share is an improvised taxi ride where anything can happen—from deep philosophical debates to getting unsolicited advice on how to raise goats on a balcony. It’s part confessional, part therapy, part fever dream… all jammed into a backseat with suspicious upholstery.

This live experience dives headfirst into one of life’s great modern dilemmas: do you talk to the driver, or do you pretend to be on a call with your dentist? It’s the beautiful awkward tango between driver and passenger—two strangers thrown into a moving metal box by a mysterious algorithm with no exit strategy except “end trip.”

Every backseat is a liminal space. The moment the door shuts, you’re in a parallel universe where you can be whoever you want: a retired astronaut, a llama whisperer, or just your usual introverted self in a hoodie. Meanwhile, the driver could be a part-time philosopher, a secret poet, or someone who just really, really wants to talk about cryptocurrency.

You’ll probably never see each other again… which makes it the perfect place to reveal your deepest secrets or rehearse your TED Talk. Will the conversation be life-changing? Forgettable? Intensely weird? Yes.

Think of it as Waiting for Godot, but in a Hyundai Elantra and with GPS yelling “recalculating.” 

REBECCA REID & RYAN BOURNE

(she/her & he/him)

Rebecca Reid and Ryan Bourne are a Calgary/Mohkinstsis based interdisciplinary artist duo specializing in placemaking, set design, music/sound creation, film, and installation art. Drawing inspiration from Pop, Surrealism, Dada, spiritual and outsider art, and esoteric history and practice, their work often employs bold colours and geometries, assemblages of reclaimed materials, and aesthetic nods to the 60’s & 70’s, employing a sense of play while exploring human experience – love, death, altered states, apocalypse anxiety, and spiritual transcendence. Their current focus includes an ongoing, transmuting body of painting, sculptural and immersive installation work entitled Neon Funeral. Their musical project Hair Control melds performance art, prop, and their own brand of avant-synth-pop in an experience they’ve dubbed the “existential workout”. Ryan is also an active creator/collaborator in YYC’s music community, as a member of Chad VanGaalen & the Bleach Wipes, Ghostkeeper, and his own Plant City Band. 

WAYSIDE PEACE POD

What if peace was a place that came to you? 
Where the pan-cultural tradition of wayside shrines meets the effulgent nostalgia of a 1980 Chev Boogie van stands our weather beaten vintage chapel on wheels, Wayside Peace Pod. A solar temple in miniature, devoted to the golden rays that guide the roadster; a hymn to the in-between, born of exhaust fumes, incense and roadside hallucinations. Peace not as a destination but as a detour. A place of reflection, ritual and rest. 

Inside: offers sanctuary to the transient soul and the GPS-glitched drifter. 
It hums. It forgets. It remembers you in languages no longer spoken. A place of stillness where plastic flowers wilt in reverse and reflections of synthetic golden waves pray in morse code. 

Outside: Nothing changes. For a moment, the road forgets it’s going somewhere. 
Not a destination. Not a direction. Just a pause: a pod of peace, parked in a paved paradise. An ephemeral sanctuary for anyone who’s ever wept in a rest stop or mistaken an exit ramp for salvation. 

Note to participants: guests are invited (but never required) to leave behind a devotional token, written note or small offering, such as a poem or sigil written on a gas receipt, or a pocket rock of unknown origin. Likewise you may take something with you that resonates. These exchanges are informal, sacred and anonymous. A moment of connection between travelers who may never meet. If devotional tokens or offerings are not for you the pod asks for nothing but your presence in exchange. 

SETH CARDINAL DODGINGHORSE

(he/they)

seth cardinal dodginghorse is a multidisciplinary artist, Prairie Chicken Dancer, experimental musician and cultural researcher. They grew up eating dirt and exploring the forest on their family’s ancestral land on the Tsuut’ina nation. In 2014 their family was forcibly removed from their homes and land for the construction of the South West Calgary Ring Road. This life changing event has been a driving force in their creative work. 

seth is currently a part of the artist collective tīná gúyáńí (Deer Road) which also includes their mother Glenna Cardinal. tīná gúyáńí was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2022. Their current music projects are lawrence teeth and Quiet Groove. In the past they have played in The Basement Demons and soft cure. 

iini (buffalo) sounds

What did the land in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) sound like before the iini (buffalo) were displaced by the recent colonization of the Treaty 7 area? For my project buffalo sounds I will be returning the iini to Mohkinstsis by broadcasting onto the radio recorded sounds of their voices and dreamy ambient soundscapes using a pirate radio powered by my car. 

TERESA TAM

(she/her)

Teresa Tam’s is an artist from and based in Calgary. She likes to alter spaces and experiences that are familiar, making them a bit foreign through re-interpreting and re-creating. Tam’s projects are developed to emphasize audience interactions as integral components to her work, impelled by the possibility of people experiencing something intimately personal through action. Tam doesn’t specialize in anything, but likes to work with digital processes, functional installations, all things shaped in paper, excessive labour, and collections of mildly niche objects. Recent work includes the Good Job Arcade project. She graduated from AUArts in 2014 and co-runs Yolkless Press with Areum Kim. She’s currently interested in: Canadian fast food discourse. 

TAM’S EXPRESS

Have you ever wondered what your fast-food order says about who you are? Whether in a rush or struck with a sudden craving, you reveal a part of yourself when you’re at the mercy of the question, “What can I get for you?” Are you steadfast in your decisions, or does the novelty of something new lure you? At TAM’S Express, our selections will guide you to ordering the combo meal that best suits who you are. We guarantee you will leave surprised and delighted by our offerings. Walk on thru, place an order, and enjoy the combos we have prepared just for you! 

CAITLIND R.C. BROWN & WAYNE GARRETT

(she/her & he/him)

Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett are artists & collaborators based in Calgary/Mohkinstsis. Their site-responsive practice includes light art, sculpture, installation, public art, radio, artist-curation, interventions, and collective actions. Caitlind & Wayne engage deeply with social spaces, exploring the perimeter of what is and isn’t “allowed” in any given environment – always within the framework of practical mischief, being good neighbours, and sharing in an abundance of democratic possibilities. Whether working locally or internationally, in formal galleries or their own backyard, Caitlind & Wayne believe in art’s radical potential to create new understandings of the everyday, closing the distance between people, and building our human capacity for empathy and self-criticality in a complex world.

IDLE WORSHIP was organized by Caitlind & Wayne as an offshoot of their annual wintertime art series, The Hibernation Project.

ALTAR NATURE

Altar Nature is a site-specific installation drawing parallels between historic pagan animal sacrifice and contemporary roadkill. Roadways are intersections for deep misunderstandings between human beings and the animal world. Most animals did not evolve to understand the motivations of motor vehicles or how they move across the landscape, and this confusion is deadly. Road Ecologists estimate that between 1 and 5 million vertebrates die from vehicular strike every day; a car kills a mammal every 30 seconds in the United States alone. We humans bisect the land with highways and byways, erecting our cathedrals of car infrastructure, and paying little attention to the impact of lost habitat, free movement, and migratory paths on other living beings…

But cars are just so dang convenient. Some might even say that the sacrifice of hundreds of millions of wild animals a year is a small price to pay for the miracle of car-based mobility. In fact, isn’t it time we recognized the Gods of Automotive Convenience with their own place of worship?

Altar Nature invites us to consider what (and who) we’re willing to sacrifice to get where we’re going, fast.