Quick Pick — Blind Encounters in Whitehorse

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Kathy Piwowar, “Encounter,” 2024, mixed media, 12" x 14" (photo courtesy of Yukon Artists at Work)

The children's game — the whisper game, or as some call it, the broken telephone game — became inspiration for a group art show, Blind Encounters, on now through Oct. 26 at Yukon Artists at Work in Whitehorse, Yukon.

In the game, a lineup of children would whisper a sentence to the child next to them. That child would then have to whisper what they heard to the next person and so on. 

In the art exhibition version of the game, curator Janet Patterson gave a word to artist Kathy Piwowar, who then painted a work inspired by the word. 

“The word I gave her was ‘encounter’,” Patterson said. “And she created a wonderful multi-media piece that involves a biker, a camera and a moose.” 

Patterson then sent a photo of Piwowar's work to the second artist on the list, Linda Leon. “Leon only had Piwowar’s work for inspiration; she was not given the secret word, nor were any of the artists who later created work for this project. Each one only had the work of the previous artist to use as a clue to the theme of the project,” according to the news release.

Participating artists include Piwowar, Leon, Doug Rutherford, Leslie Leong, Aimee Ellis, Virginia Wilson, Susanne Hausermann, Pat Bragg, Maya Rosenberg and Marie-Hélène Comeau.

“Even though no one except the first artist was aware of the theme, all of the pieces somehow work together,” Patterson said in the release. “It was such a fun experiment to try.” ■

Blind Encounters is on now through Oct. 26 at Yukon Artists at Work in Whitehorse, Yukon

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