Medium: video installation, colour, silent, loop
Dimensions: projected figure is 5’ 9” in height
Original Exhibition Year: 2011

YEAH features a male character wearing a shirt that reads NUCK YEAH. In their intended form, these words are simply a statement of solidarity for the professional hockey team in Vancouver, the Canucks. But as passion sometimes does at sporting events, Canuck losses became the flashpoint for two major street riots: the first in 1994, the second in 2011 -both made infamous from the worldwide news coverage they received.

In the week(s) that followed the 2011 riot, public sensitivity was high. Any actions that could be construed as aggressive were met with strong condemnation, as if the city ‘as living-organism’ was trying to heal itself.

Seemingly innocuous/even common gestures that occur in downtown Vancouver nightly were increasingly seen as ‘blight’ on the city’s conscience. Post riot, people in the downtown core were far more sensitive and socially conscious than before; however, as a corollary to this, wearing Canucks apparel also carried with it the potential that people could view you as ‘one of those rioters’, instead of as, simply a Canucks fan. This is a unique tension, and is one that still has lingering effects today.

YEAH exists because of this tension. The work was created to emphasis a now politicized situation that exists/could exist from a rather innocuous act. Because the male character is wearing a NUCK YEAH shirt, his act of urination is symbolic of evoking ‘the tribal sports hooligan’. His actions are inextricably linked, and non-divorceable from, the undercurrent of meaningless violence that occurred in the 2011 riot.

YEAH is a commentary on modern tribalism, societal values, civil unrest, Western privilege, and perhaps most importantly: the absurd.


a digital pixel manipulation ~ www.briankentgotro.com