Casey Koyczan on Digital Innovation and Cultural Heritage

Casey Koizan is a Dene interdisciplinary artist from Yellowknife, northwest Territories, that uses a variety of mediums to communicate how culture and technology can grow together in order for us to develop a better understanding of who we are, where we come from and where we're going. He creates with whatever tools necessary to bring an idea to fruition, working mostly with sculpture, installation, 3d, VR, ar, 360, video and audio to create music, soundscapes and film scores. He's an international artist that has participated in many residencies, exhibits, festivals and collaborations in parts of the world, such as Finland, colombia, chile, mexico, the Netherlands, the US, the UK and Italy at the Venice Biennale. He's also a musician, producer, filmmaker, actor, narrator and advocate for future generations of artists and musicians. He has a multimedia production diploma from Lethbridge College, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Thompson Rivers University and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Manitoba. Casey, welcome to the Art-O-Log.

Hey Madison, Thank you so much for having me.

How would you describe your practice?

I'm an interdisciplinary slash mixed media artist that likes to draw inspiration from anything and everything, whether it's materials, emotions, technology and culture, to name a few things. Things Depending on the mediums I work with at any given time. I like to evoke a sense of mysticism and wonder, while maintaining a mix of playfulness and darkness.

What were your earliest memories of art?

I suppose it would have to be from watching cartoons or playing video games, even though I wasn't really aware that animation or programming was artwork at the time. Just being a child and in front of screens, that sort of thing it's art was making its way into my life. I was mostly like an outdoor kid, always out on my bike and playing sports, and that sort of thing Art was never like a very predominant thing within my household, but there was ways that it was making its way into my life for sure.

And when did you know that you wanted to be an artist?

So I've had a few different aspiring career paths in my life already, so it took a while for me to make the decision that I wanted to be an artist. As a child and young teen, I wanted to be a professional hockey player and followed that for quite some time, right up into the midget AAA area of hockey, where it's at that point you're like two steps away from the NHL. It was just getting to a point where it was getting too much and the I'll just say it like the toxic masculine culture of hockey is very present. But I just knew that I wanted to do more with my life and experience a plethora of things besides just a rink and the intense competitiveness. I really still love playing hockey, but only on like outdoor rinks, just skating around, shooting a puck, getting some exercise and having fun.

When I decided to quit competitive hockey, I started to take snowboarding a lot more seriously and started to get very good at it. I was met with the same competitive energy, however, when I signed up for my first and only freestyle competition, but I backed out because I didn't like how it made me feel Like I felt like I was getting that same sort of competitive energy from hockey at that point. So I had to back out, but at that point I knew that I wouldn't, or that I would have to switch my interest to something that I enjoyed doing and would be, and something that would be more sustainable. I was a professional musician for about two to three years, but that also proved to be very difficult, as the music industry is such a beast. I found art to be a good mix of enjoyment and financial security once I started to be implemented into bigger exhibits.

Can you tell me a bit more about your music practice and how that factors into your art practice a bit?

more about your music practice and how that factors into your art practice. So I started playing music and creating sound a long time ago, but I feel like I started doing it more avidly within my the time that I was doing my bachelor's degree and, in Kamloops, had a little downstairs sort of basement studio with a roommate of mine and we were just like making sounds and songs and not really taking it too seriously. But what I really enjoyed doing for a while is live looping, like using loop pedals to like resample and replay back what I'm feeding into it, and so it was a way to for me to create this like one man band kind of thing with multi instruments and creating sounds that were different than what a lot of other people in Yellowknife were making. However, before that, I started with guitar, taught myself how to play guitar, I learned how to play the drums, bass, and then keyboards and synths came along, and then pedals like effect pedals I just fell in love with. So I really like to experiment With all of that, released my first album quite some time ago and then followed up with an EP under a new name.

It was more like electronica, hip hop, metal sounding, but then at that point I just decided to try something else and hang that up for really going for like the professional musician route. However, like since then, I've always been creating sounds and implementing that into my artwork, whether it's like sound effects or soundscapes. I've also done audio for video games a couple of video games so far as well as like voice acting work and narration. One of the funnest approaches to that was doing narration, sound effects and music for a video game called Thunderbird Strike, where I got to really exercise some voice acting skills and that. So something that I really enjoy doing. Still Now, I mostly just make simplified punk cover songs on my ukulele. It's fun and it lightens the mood a bit. If I ever need a little pick-me-up, I'll just strung a couple songs on that and it makes me feel better.

So technology is huge in every facet of your practice. Can you tell me more about how technology best conveys what you're trying to communicate in your art?

So since childhood I've always been fascinated with technology and how things work. This fascination continued with me throughout my life, and being able to implement it into my artwork just seemed to make sense to me.

Sometimes the technology I discover can influence the idea of an artwork, and it's interesting to put it to work within that sort of like creative realm. I suppose almost, if not all the artwork that I make has some sort of technological aspect to it, whether it's the tools I use, how the work comes to fruition or what the subject matter is. I think it'll always be part of my artwork in some way or another, as technology is always evolving, it's changing the way not only the world works but how artwork is made. Like with myself and having this transition from a lot of like physical sculpture and installation works to a lot more digital works, that's just sort of like an aspect of how sort of technology has influenced my life and my practice.

What made you gravitate towards installation and technological work as opposed to more traditional mediums like painting or sculpture?

So when I entered into my BFA degree at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, I wanted to come out of it as a master illustrator and painter. Wasn't very good at it, that's it, but that's a whole thing in itself, right is? There's a lot of comparison with that decision, because it's I can't draw as good as this or the greats or that sort of thing, whereas you look at artists like egon schiel his like self-portrait of him like as a goblin, was like so inspiring to me. It's like I don't have to draw perfect or hyper-realistic, I can do something like that and it's its own sort of like creative entity. But that was just like my kind of standard.

I couldn't draw as well as I wanted to. I had a really I had a big problem with foreshortening. I couldn't really do that very well, but so painting and drawing caused me a lot of anxiety. Like just the blank two-dimensional canvas was just something that, like I couldn't really handle. But during my second year of my BFA degree I was introduced to sculpture and installation and I fell in love with it because of the freedom to work with my hands and use a multitude of mediums in the same space was very liberating and made me feel like I can do anything I wanted to. Really, I also realized that working at a larger scale and encompassing entire rooms or spaces was something that I really enjoyed. Like being able to implement the bodily senses into my artwork, such as the smell of earth, materials or frequency of sound, just seemed to be something that was like really exciting for me, like I wasn't just bound to one medium. I can use all these mediums and bring them together to create this sort of experience.

Can you tell me more about the concept of Indigenous Futurity and how that, how you explore that in your work of?

Indigenous futurity and how you explore that in your work. So I grew up watching a lot of the Alien and Predator films and really enjoyed how the future was portrayed in those films, albeit very dystopian and dark and that sort of thing. But yeah, they also influenced a lot of the dark aesthetic that is housed within a lot of my works. Yeah, they also influenced a lot of the dark aesthetic that is housed within a lot of my works, mostly thinking about HR Giger and his sort of style and being implemented into the Alien series. It's always like something that kind of freaked me out but also like I really liked and enjoyed, and it's weird how the mind does that.

But I'm also a huge sci-fi fan in general. So I like to think about how the world will be in the future and how our collective cultures exist and how our cultural practices and beliefs are carried out, like how things can change, be enhanced or be communicated. To me, it's generally about seeing our culture and stories in the future as a way to ensure that we'll always be here and that our people and our cultures will continue on into the future. So that's something that I really like to play with. I also like to try and think outside the box a bit, like things could be this way or this sort of spiritual practice that we carry out could be done this way. Like thinking about not just the way things are that we carry out could be done this way. Like thinking about not just the way things are but how they could be you were just in austria prepping a show.

Can you tell me more about this exhibition?

so this was an augmented reality, an exhibit titled La Lune Washeesho, where the theme was basically like the moon, but also like our relation to the moon, or moon stories from our cultures or that sort of thing. However, my culture doesn't local sort of organizations in Austria the reciprocal relationship of Dene people and the moon, where the moon resonates the beat of the Dene drum and explodes, revealing a drum within it that's playing. The viewer is able to look around at all the fragmented pieces of the moon as they turn into the stars and see the drum being played amidst a nebula background that is procedurally generated, which means that the nebula that's formed behind the drum is different every time a user enters into the experience, which is a really interesting sort of way to to program like a digital work, like I love space and all the different things that that says cultivated within that. But the moon is this interesting thing because, like throughout history, there's a lot of like written scripts that are just like one day it just appeared, like it was just there, but it wasn't there before and it was just there all of a sudden, and so, without getting too far down this rabbit hole, like it makes me think of the Anunnaki and how they brought the moon here and now, like how it's hollow or that there's like things on the dark side of the moon.

So I was hinting to that as well, but in a sort of playful way. Like inside the moon is this gigantic denny drum, sure? But anyways, this experience was awesome. It was an amazing opportunity that brought me to a country that I'd never been before and also allowed me to take an extra week afterward to explore more of the country and snowboard the Alps with one of the other artists in the exhibit. We just agreed to stay an extra week and explore and go snowboarding and skiing, and I've always wanted to snowboard in the Alps since I was a teenager, so it was literally like a dream come true for me to be able to be up there and when we first got to the top of the mountain, it was just like man, we did it.

This is awesome. This 14-year-old Casey would be so proud of me right now. Yeah, it was awesome, like it was so cool, and just to experience other cultures and how they do things in one of the museums the Belvedere Palace I think it was called, but they had a bunch of Gustav Klimt works, they had a bunch of Egon Scheele works in there, they had a couple of Van Goghs, they had a couple August Rodin sculptures. So being able to see that stuff in person was just so inspiring to me.

Like Gustav Klimt is one of my favorite artists, like the Poppy Field painting is like one of my all-time favorite works, whereas it's weird because people see that painting and they're like this is your favorite artwork or this is your favorite painting. I don't know what it is about it, but I just I love that work. Maybe it's because of what I produce and what that work is are like so contrastfully different that people can't really understand that, but it is what it is and it was just really cool to see all these works in person, to experience these works in a way where you can actually see the brushstrokes and that sort of thing like not on paper, not in art history textbooks or anything like that. But to actually be in the presence of these works was pretty monumental.

Yeah, that's amazing. You had a really big year this year, also being long listed for the sobi art award with your piece walk in a circle. Can you tell me more about this work and what inspired it?

yeah, so this is a series slash body of work that is inspired by indigenous art and life materials and is a way for me to think about those materials in a different way, by giving them human characteristics and portraying them more as spirits or creatures, to hopefully create more of a connection to them from the viewer, so to see ourselves within them and how the majority of the materials come from the land, just like us. It's a way to appreciate these materials a bit more and to also appreciate Indigenous culture a bit more, or to get a better sort of understanding of it, right, like to see yourself in anything, especially like an artwork. It creates a lot of this sort of connection and can do something to the brain. That is that feels pretty good. These are all digitally created from 3d software, right from scratch, and can sometimes be challenging to get them to work the way that I want them to, especially when implementing physics properties like fluid or collision simulations into them. That stuff can take a while.

Physics in 3d is like wild, but yeah, it's been interesting though, because, due to the influx of artificial intelligence and how that's made its way into art, like a lot of people assume that they're made with AI like. Sometimes people won't even ask. They're like oh, I really like your AI works and I'm just like I don't use AI. I'm anti-AI actually because it freaks me out. But yeah, it's definitely not the case. I've logged numerous hours making these works and I have a lot of these other works, a lot of ideas for more works for this series planned in the future, but I'm prioritizing just wrapping up this big 3d animation project right now, but there will definitely be some more in the near future, early next year. I've got a two or three of them like already in progress, but I just haven't really been able to get back to them due to the demand of this project. But they're also a lot of fun to work on. Like I don't have one set formula as to how they're constructed, but yeah, it's interesting working on them because some of them are like super playful.

Like a couple of them primarily tufting and beadwork were artworks in general that are unlike anything I've ever made before. When I released tufting, actually like within 30 minutes, I had five people message me. Just be like dude, are you okay, are you on drugs or what's happening. I was like dude, like tufting is super colorful, it's fluffy, and so I had to make that walk cycle or that artwork, like I had to make it cute, I had to make it fluffy sort of thing to like really communicate the textures and that sort of thing of moose and caribou hair tufting. So it's been interesting. And then to contrast that, releasing something like the antler artwork, a lot of people were like great, now I'm of people were like great, now I'm gonna have nightmares and I'm just like sweet.

That was my goal.

So it's been interesting to to work on this series and, like I said, there's a lot more in the future what have been some of your favorite projects that you've been able to work on I'd say my bfa grad installation, which is called Emotive Ascension, was like one of the first projects that I really enjoyed working on, even though it was so much work Like it was a year and a half of hollowing out an eight foot chunk of a tree and when you say it like that it sounds pretty dumb. And when you say it like that it sounds pretty dumb but that's what I had to do in order to get this massive speaker inside of it and harvest all of these other materials from all over Kamloops. But it was definitely an installation that, like made myself and others realize it's I'm ready, like I'm ready, for a professional artist career, that sort of thing. And then, moving on within the six years between my bfa and my mfa, I kept on working up in in yellowknife because I moved back there.

I had a what I call a performance painting that I created, called residential values, which was about 400 uh, painted hockey pucks being shot onto a canvas and it creates this like really repetitious process and the outcome of it is like a Jackson Pollock kind of painting, like abstract, expressionless view. But it was just really fun to. It was fun to create that work even though it was a lot of work and subject matter of it was my interpretation of like racism in sport, because there's a lot of that goes on that's not really talked about too much and it was like my experience throughout playing hockey in Southern Alberta as an indigenous hockey player.

You best believe there's some racism happening and also related to my dad's experience in residential school and how he he found that like playing hockey within residential school was like something that kind of saved him. And then, moving on from that, I created an immersive film, an immersive 3D animated film called Aleja all at once, which is also one of the two artworks that was submitted for the Sobiar Award. That was a project that I logged a lot of hours on and also leveled up maybe five or six times with my skills in not only digital artwork but 3D animation. Walk in a Circle is definitely one of my favorite projects, and a contract that I acquired but was still a really fun project to work on was the Winnipeg Art Gallery Virtual Tour that was released last year. It was a ton of work work, but it was also.

It was just really fun also to be able to work alongside julia lafreniere, who's the on-site person for the way she helped with a ton of the administration sort of stuff and organization and implementation of the tour, and it's interesting because it was like the first virtual tour that I ever created and it was massive. It's huge. You can go like all around the gallery outside of the gallery as well. I did 360 photos all the way outside the perimeter of the building. So, yeah, it's just a fun way to explore the WAG in general and also give me a lot more inspiration for other works. There's so many other artworks to name, because I usually enjoy everything that I work on, but but those I guess those are some of just the immediate standouts that come to mind.

What have been some career highlights for you.

My BFA grad exhibit was definitely a highlight. That installation got a lot of mixed reviews based on this huge installation that had a very like. The soundtrack of it was this weird mix of abrasiveness but also euphoria, and that's what it was intended to be Like. The soundtrack alone was it was to be like the sound of the harmony and the chaos of the universe clashing, so it was like, definitely a highlight. That kind of set me up for a lot of other things in which insurgence, resurgence was definitely a highlight, because the reason why I was curated into that exhibit was from one of the curators viewing my emotive, sentient work from. I think it was from an artist talk or whatever, but that was an exhibit that brought me to Winnipeg and influenced me to move here as well. Like that was in 2017.

The following year, 2018, I was part of the Lisa Lay exhibit at the Art Gallery of Alberta, and the interesting thing about these two exhibits was that they were also the first time that both of my parents got to see my artwork in person and so to attend the openings and to finally realize how much art means to me, because before that, they couldn't really understand it. Like there was numerous times within my career where both of my parents were like, oh son, maybe you should get another career or something that pays more or whatever. But the heart wants what it wants, right, and you're really inspired by a lot of different things and you do what you like to do. So it was interesting, like having them attend these, these openings and these exhibits, and it was also, I think, one of the only times where both my parents told me that that they were proud of me, which is like half of it is oh wow, that's so nice. But the other half of me was just like now, like, really, it's 2017 and 2018 and I've been alive for a while, but regardless, I'll take it.

And then the art Arctica festival in Helsinki, finland. It was the first time that I got to travel and exhibit internationally with my art and was like the spark for me to open up my mindset and understanding of what is possible. It was a festival where I had to get my passport for the first time and to travel overseas, and it was pretty wild. I loved it. I loved that place. I love Finland and the people there, and when I left I immediately started to miss it, but it was also just okay, like, where else am I going to go? Like, where is this passport going to take me next?

And one of the things was I did a three-week indigenous residency in Palomino, colombia, which was a life-changing experience and will definitely go down as one of the craziest and most fun residencies I've ever done. It was, it was wild. I thought I was going to die like five times during that residency. It was insane. But man, it was just. It was life-changing to be able to be immersed in their culture, eat their food, to see, like, just how genuinely happy the people are and, compared to us, whatever they have, next to nothing, but they're just like, they're happy, they have everything they need. And that just did so much to me. Also, upon returning to Canada, it was such a realization that it's just like man, we make our own problems, like we really do. Compared to what I just experienced over the last three weeks, it's like we don't need to do this to ourselves. We choose to.

And then showing artwork at the Venice Biennale alongside the Sammy artists for the Iran 360 slash Arctic XR exhibit was definitely a highlight, a dream come true. Ever since I heard about the Venice Biennale within my BFA, it was like a goal, a dream of mine, so be able to do that was awesome. That's where I showed my all at once film and, yeah, I'm just so grateful that my artwork has been able to take me to many different places throughout the world and I really appreciate all the people that have helped me so far. Appreciate all the people that have helped me so far curating me into exhibits, and people like you that have me on for interviews and to get my stuff out there. I'm really grateful and I really appreciate all the help.

Where do you see your practice going in the future?

I feel that I'll continue to push myself in all aspects of my practice, not only within my art, but like my life as well. I push myself and I'm constantly assessing what I need work on, and I'm not afraid to to approach these things, because it's not easy right, like I'd much rather do that than just be like nope, everything's fine, I'm good, everyone else is the problem.

It's like no, sometimes I'm the problem, right. That's one thing that I like to do with my art. I like to push it in various ways as well, and I feel that my artwork is going to take somewhat of a weird turn in the future, but in a good way. I'm really excited to make more weird stuff. Some of it is already pretty weird, but I just want to get weirder. Maybe that's something that's coming along with age or whatever.

My inner, like Hunter S Thompson, really wants to make like crazy and weird artwork, and then I'll eventually get back into making more physical artworks and installations, as I've been creating a lot of digital artwork since the beginning of the pandemic, which was definitely a conscious decision in order to keep showing artwork when a lot of these like in-person events and exhibits weren't allowed. I want to keep inspiring the youth of the Northwest Territories, where I'm from, and across Canada, and keep surprising myself with what I create. To me, those are some of the best moments where you're just like oh cool, I didn't know that I could do that. That's something that I really enjoy and just want to keep on doing that.

What advice would you have for someone looking to become an artist?

I think, regardless of what we do, how we were raised or what our lives entail, that we all have some sort of creativity within us. It's all about how we express it really Like cooking, for instance, is a very creative practice, as some meals can be interpreted as works of art, especially after eating them. Oh my god, like I'm in heaven. In regards to advice, I'd say just try, try things out, take risks and just give it a shot. If you're interested in something, try it. Please just try it, because you never know what you're going to be good at or what you're going to enjoy unless you just take that plunge and go for it. Some people create artworks primarily as a therapeutic or meditative approach to health, and I absolutely love that idea. It said you're supposed to do something extremely simple every day, for just 5 to 15 minutes, because it does so much for your health, not only your mental health, but your bodily health, your soul, your spirituality, whatever. So to be able to do that with art, I think, is very special to a lot of people. However, I'm not going to sugarcoat it.

It can be very tough, especially if you have huge expectations or think you're going to make a lot of money right away. Things take time. You need to put the work in, but eventually it pays off. Also, like this is something that not a lot of people like to hear but you need to do a lot of paperwork within your career. Whether it's applying to grants, writing bios and artist statements, or submitting materials for exhibits or festivals, about 65 to 75 percent of your time will be spent doing administration work and that's just the way it is.

If you want to be successful, like I really wish someone told me that within my BFA Right and within artist talks and that sort of thing, I'll say that and, like the majority of the room is like oh man, yeah, I know, that's okay, it is. You want me to lie. You want me to lie to you and say that you could just make art and be happy all the time and make a ton of money. That's not the way it is. Yeah, it is. I just like to. I don't like to say that to people, but that's the way it is. So for them to be better prepared for it, I guess hopefully will help.

Yeah, casey, thank you so much for being on the Art-O-Log today.

This has been such a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

Where can people find your artwork?

Most of my artwork is housed on my Instagram account, which is at Casey Koizan Art, and also I'm in the process of revamping my website, but I'm going to get that back up really soon, which is Casey Khoisancom.

All right, thank you so much.

Right on. Thank you so much.