Gordon Ferguson
Born in High River, Alberta, Gord Ferguson worked at his father’s hardware store where he learned about materials and fabrication. After studying at the Alberta College of Art + Design (ACAD), he earned his M.F.A. in Sculpture at University of Montana (1981), and immediately after began teaching at ACAD where he eventually headed the Department of Sculpture.
Describing his artwork as being “concerned with physics, matter and motion,” Ferguson produces gallery installations and composes sculptures made with found objects. In response to human attempts to impose on the world, Ferguson uses his work to discuss “corporate behavior, conformity and hierarchies of value,” and examine what all aspects of human design and fabrication (especially of consumer goods) reveal about cultural values and biases.
Ferguson briefly garnered headlines in 2013 because of the performance art project of one of his ACAD students, Miguel Suarez, who slaughtered and plucked a chicken in an ACAD cafeteria before pretending to prepare to eat it. The performance intended to comment on consumer ignorance of the bloodiness of industrial chicken farming. Saying that such activities were “prejudicial to ACAD’s business and reputation,” the college fired Ferguson, who had at that point been teaching for thirty-two years. Following national protests and advocacy by the Canadian Association of University Teachers for academic freedom, ACAD reinstated Ferguson, who said he was “elated.”
Ferguson may eventually, however, be best known for his work that dwells in numerous public museum and private collections across Canada. He’s received two Canada Council grants to support his studio research. His best known works include Future Station (Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2015), Escalator (public sculpture, Esker Foundation Building, 2010), and The Dilated Garden (solo sculpture installation, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, 2010). He has been a member of ACAD’s Board of Governors and its Faculty Association.
Describing his artwork as being “concerned with physics, matter and motion,” Ferguson produces gallery installations and composes sculptures made with found objects. In response to human attempts to impose on the world, Ferguson uses his work to discuss “corporate behavior, conformity and hierarchies of value,” and examine what all aspects of human design and fabrication (especially of consumer goods) reveal about cultural values and biases.
Ferguson briefly garnered headlines in 2013 because of the performance art project of one of his ACAD students, Miguel Suarez, who slaughtered and plucked a chicken in an ACAD cafeteria before pretending to prepare to eat it. The performance intended to comment on consumer ignorance of the bloodiness of industrial chicken farming. Saying that such activities were “prejudicial to ACAD’s business and reputation,” the college fired Ferguson, who had at that point been teaching for thirty-two years. Following national protests and advocacy by the Canadian Association of University Teachers for academic freedom, ACAD reinstated Ferguson, who said he was “elated.”
Ferguson may eventually, however, be best known for his work that dwells in numerous public museum and private collections across Canada. He’s received two Canada Council grants to support his studio research. His best known works include Future Station (Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, Art Gallery of Alberta, 2015), Escalator (public sculpture, Esker Foundation Building, 2010), and The Dilated Garden (solo sculpture installation, Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, 2010). He has been a member of ACAD’s Board of Governors and its Faculty Association.