Interior Investigations (i2i)

Interior Investigations (I2I) is an artist-research initiative that brought nine artists and cultural critics to the Kamloops region for sustained periods to research and create site-specific works of writing, performance, and/or installation. The intention of I2I was to invite artists to explore the notion of the “interior,” posited as both the geographic region of B.C., but also the interiorities of race, class, and sexual identity within that space as the artist interacts with a community. The play on the title – I2I or eye-to-eye – describes the process of the artists relating to a space outside their particular locale. Each artist visited Kamloops separately for a week-long “investigation” during a five-month period (January to May, 2006). The artist was given free reign as to what constitutes that investigation – archival research, meeting with particular communities or individuals, gathering materials from the surrounding landscape. Artists also collaborated with other artists and/or cultural critics, a process that was self-determined by the individuals involved.