Roger Eberhard

Tumulus

Exhibition View Gallery Jones, Vancouver
Exhibition View Gallery Jones, Vancouver
Tumulus, published by Peperoni Books

Tumulus

In 2008, Roger Eberhard collaborated with Canadian artist James Nizam in photographing the ruins of summer cabins destroyed by their owners in the wake of a land dispute on the Katzie Indian Reserve in Pitt Lake, British Columbia. In the 70’s a developer planned to create a resort on the Katzie band’s lakeside property. About 60 un-serviced lots were created before the deal went sour a decade later. The Katzie, through the Department of Indian and Northern affairs, began leasing the sites out individually.  But in 2000, the band voted to end the leases determining that the land was better suited for its resource and its tourist potential. It was their land right to do so but in the wake of this decision the cabin owners had to leave their homes. Many of the owners destroyed their cabins. Some burned them down. Others simply walked away. In 2007, when Nizam and Eberhard toured the site for the first time, many of the cabin structures had fallen into large mounds of debris that were slowly being consumed by the forest. It was hard not to imagine these formations as Tumuli, an archaeological term describing ancient burial mounds.