WESTERN FRONT – The Weather Report

Western Front is pleased to present The Weather Report, a new online project by Jay Pahre developed as part of our artists-in-residence program.

The Weather Report is a series of broadcasted writing that is tuned to weather formations across gitchi-gami (Lake Superior) and minong (Isle Royale). The lake is as much a place of passage as it is a boundary; in the winter the water freezes, forming an ice-bridge between the archipelago and the mainland. In the summer, the open water gives way for crossing by floating log, boat, or swimming. Drawing from the ways atmospheres collide and shift interactively with the changing ecologies across the region, The Weather Report queries these points of connection along the avenue of speculative writing.

Presented on a project website designed by Asger Behncke Jacobsen, the audio playback and typographical treatment of each piece of writing shifts in real-time, responding to the changing weather conditions at the geographical location that the text is about from data drawn from the National Weather Service (NOAA).

The Weather Report is written out four times, each in a different font that vary in thickness and shape. The text is in black on a teal background.

About the Artist

Jay Pahre is a queer and trans settler artist, writer, and cultural worker currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples. His work engages trans and queer ecologies, interspecies collaboration, and place in the context of settler colonialism. He has attended residencies at Western Front, Banff Centre and Isle Royale National Park. His work has been exhibited across the US and Canada at traditional galleries and community spaces, and his writing has been published in academic journals and comic anthologies.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Paula Booker for initiating this project as part of her curatorial project, Storytelling and Stewardship.

Western Front is a non-profit
artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.