ANYOX: WAITING IN RUINS

In July 2023, determined to find an extra-extraordinary landscape in the land of extraordinary landscapes, 10 artists headed out to explore the ghost town of Anyox, on the north coast of BC, more than 125 km north of Prince Rupert. We named ourselves the Northern Artists Adventure group (NAAG), and ranged in age from 16 to 69, including two mother/daughter pairings. From Prince Rupert and Smithers, we were friends and colleagues, and many of us had worked together before. It was an adventure of exploration and art, for everyone, from start to finish. Abandoned and derelict settlements have much to offer. We were not the first artists to explore Anyox, not by a long shot. The landscape, crafted by hands and machines, is a giant well of creativity, attracting photographers, filmmakers, painters and writers from all over the world. This was an opportunity to show a landscape that is, despite an abundance of creatives, still seen by very few, revealing fragments of historical, geographical and personal consequence; flooded with layers of light, weather and decay. How did human meaning show in this landscape, and how can art make it possible to see that meaning? In 2023, BC Mining Law Reform published a “Dirty Dozen” list of BC’s top polluting and risky mines. Anyox, a former copper mine closed since 1936, long before environmental regulation of mining in BC even existed, was on the list. A top producer and top polluter, sulphuric fumes from the smelter were so strong it produced acid rain that destroyed all vegetation for a 20-30 miles radius (evident in historical photographs). Abandoned by its original owners, it has never been properly closed or reclaimed. We found a surreal landscape heavily marked by industry and slowly returning to nature – startling habitats springing from toxic waste and the crumbling industrial ruins of the former mining community. Ironically, Anyox the ghost town is more alive now than when people lived there. Back then, everything was dead. The title of the project is Waiting in Ruins, meant to describe remnants of the past; the streets and buildings that are resolute witnesses to the never-ending seesaw economy typical of most (if not all) Northern communities in British Columbia. The art is a reflection of the way these dramas have played themselves out, how buildings and their overwhelming memories remain in defiance. Even when meaning is buried, it casts a shadow.\

NORTHERN ARTIST ADVENTURE GROUP

Mike Ambach Averil Cociani Lynn Cociani Michelle Gazely Jeseka Hickey Suzo Hickey Joan Mostad Sarah Northcott Debra Strand Mark Tworow