ISOLATED BABEL was a socially distanced collaboration spanning the 12-week duration of the The Hibernation Project 2021. Conceived by Calgary-based artist and professor, Khalid Omokanye, ISOLATED BABEL was a sculptural ‘exquisite corpse’ where a different artist each week created a new layer of the sculpture, collaborating blindly with the previous week’s artist(s) to slowly build a “tower” in our backyard. Drawing a comparison between the fable of the Tower of Babel and the isolating impacts of the global pandemic, ISOLATED BABEL proposed a COVID-safe method of working together over time, responding to a moment dramatically defined by self-isolation, social distancing, and a renegotiation of daily communications via mediated technologies.

At the completion of the project, the tower was destroyed. Materials were redistributed and re-used by participating artists.

_{A timelapse of ISOLATED BABEL}

ISOLATED BABEL ARTISTS:

WEEK 1: Khalid Omokanye
WEEK 2: Guy Gardner
WEEK 3: Wayne Garrett
WEEK 4: Lane Shordee
WEEK 5: Svea Ferguson & Logan Lape
WEEK 6: Lisa Hodgkinson & Stewart Elton
WEEK 6.5: Jenna Swift
WEEK 7: Matthew Kennedy, Mark Erickson, and Phil Wilson
WEEK 8: Rebecca Reid & Ryan Bourne
WEEK 9: Anna Ostberg, Caitlind Brown, and Kenzie Housego
WEEK 10: Joanne MacDonald
WEEK 11: Sarah Slaughter
WEEK 12: Alia Shahab & Genevieve Pare