Heather Yip
Lake Trout
Recycled Vinyl Beach Toy, thread, rags
2021
Consider the consequences of waste. Lake Trout, 2021, discarded inflatable water toy, hand sewn & stuffed
Heather was born in Saskatchewan and spent time living in a variety of places in Canada, mostly west of Montreal. She completed her undergraduate degree in Industrial Design at the University of Alberta in 1998. Upon graduating, she worked in the manufacturing industry in Calgary and was also an art instructor at Elements Mental Health Centre and the Wildflower Centre.
In 2012, Heather moved to Kelowna and has since lived in the BC interior with her partner and their two children. While she lived in Kelowna Heather held artist-in-residence studios at The Heart Studio and the Rotary Centre for the Arts. Recently, she was the curator at the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan until she moved north to Salmon Arm where she has a home-based studio art practice.
Heather is a contemporary conceptual visual artist who lives and works on the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc people. Her practice is inspired by human relationships, technology and the environment, especially now in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. In her current work and research, she uses assemblage, performance and digital media techniques to draw on these themes. The result often encourages her audience to question the role that technology plays in their lives and, that it must not simply be seen as a neutral space.
She sometimes explores making art through the lens of an alter ego called “Superfun Mom” which Heather developed while pursuing her MFA (Emily Carr, 2020). Superfun Mom allows her to work freely through the lens of feminist parenting and pop culture-inspired inquiries, which sometimes result in the creation of participatory work. Unpaid parental labour of all kinds and her lived experience mediating her kids’ device-centred lives are additional curiosities for Superfun Mom. Fortunately, her children and their toys are occasional cooperators in these conceptions.
Image: Lake Trout, 2021 Discarded inflatable water toy, hand sewn & stuffed 29” x 7.5” x 1.5”
