Save The Bay!

Save The Bay! takes, as a catalyst, the gifting of 'Rupert's Land' by King Charles II of England to his cousin Prince Rupert (First Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company). Utilising Zizek's idea of 'overidentification' and elements of clown and trickster, the project comes to an antagonistic and skewed defence of the HBC legacy, using this stance to highlight the unspoken aspects of the company's 'Canadian-ness', the lasting damage caused by colonialism and the status of corporations in the 21st Century (which exploit a chameleonic, multi-faceted and unaccountable, identity as both entity and individual). The project encourages us to face up to our complicity as colonisers, foregrounding the inseparable ties between capitalism and imperialism and asserting that for any kind of true 'reconciliation' to occur in North America we, as settlers, first have to be willing to shoulder the responsibility of the wrong doing for which we are making amends.