Linda Duvall, This Place Remembers
Over the course of a career spanning four decades, Linda Duvall has developed a distinctive art practice. Drawing on her background in sociology and education, as well as her experience living in rural communities, she has created a dynamic practice that situates conversation, collaboration and cultural exchange as both methods and artistic production.
Much of Duvall’s work relates to her experience as a parent dealing with her son’s addiction, navigating the criminal justice system, and confronting loss and grief. She has explored these issues through several community-based and participatory projects. This proposal supports Duvall’s new commemorative public intervention titled, This Place Remembers.
This Place Remembers
Beginning in the summer of 2025, the artist will invite members of the community to recommend public sites throughout the city of Saskatoon that they would like to acknowledge. Working with a group of collaborators and members of STR8 UP, a local organization that supports men and women as they transition out of street gangs, Duvall will mark each site by planting crocuses. A plant associated with spring and renewal, she intends to plant 6,000 of these hardy Dutch bulbs to acknowledge community trauma and promote healing and growth.
“The idea of planting crocuses comes from a dark place – a place of painful memories. When I move around the city of Saskatoon, I am enveloped by these memories oozing from various sites. Some are connected to difficult public events that happened there… others are more personal, like the places that my son and I spent together before his drug-related death, or the corner where I personally witnessed a vicious act. I will gather an extensive list of such sites – locations full of raw and hurtful memories – sites that need healing and new hope. This project is based on the premise that these sites hold tight to their memories and histories, acting as mini-memorials throughout the city.”
- Linda Duvall
In the spring of 2026, when the crocuses bloom, Remai Modern will organize a walking tour of nearby sites to give increased visibility to this otherwise subtle artist intervention.
This work will introduce a larger retrospective project that will unfold over a period of approximately one year. Through a series of presentations, public engagements, performances and a publication, the museum will explore the dimensions of Duvall’s practice and the many relationships and connections she’s forged along the way.
Biography
Linda Duvall is a Canadian artist and educator based in Saskatoon. She studied sociology and English at Carleton University and education at Queen’s University. She earned an AOCA diploma from Ontario College of Art and Master of Fine Arts degrees from University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Transart Institute.
Linda Duvall moved with her family from Ontario to Saskatoon in 1992, where she taught at the University of Saskatchewan. Her art projects, exhibitions and research have taken up questions of conscience, truth and the dynamics of interpersonal relationships.
She has exhibited widely in Canada including solo projects at Art Gallery of Hamilton, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Gallery 44, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Mendel Art Gallery, Dunlop Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Calgary (now Contemporary Calgary), among many other museums, galleries and artist-run centres. She has participated in numerous residencies and presented her work internationally including projects in Guatemala, Slovenia, Spain and the UK.
STR8 UP
STR8 UP’s mission is to “assist individuals in mastering their own destiny and liberating themselves from gangs, addictions and criminal street lifestyles.” More information on STR8 UP can be found on their website. Linda Duvall has worked with STR8 UP in past projects and has developed a strong rapport with the organization.