Duane Linklater
2005 Grand Jeep Cherokee, 2013Decommission features a new sculptural work, 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee, Linklater’s retired family vehicle stripped down to the frame. The work functions as an inquest into the jeep’s problematic model name, which stereotypically associates land and nature with Indigenous cultures. Stranded and vulnerable in the gallery space, the dismantled jeep memorializes the vehicle’s service as a workhorse to the artist and his family, as well as the decline of the SUV—a car that was branded for forays into the great outdoors. Here, Linklater acknowledges his own contradictions and compliance with systems of consumerism and identity, and similarly prompts us to consider our own complicity.