Lot 20

Trailers are everywhere in Newfoundland: cheek by jowl in RV parks, in informal clusters by ponds, tucked alone in woods, perched on headlands. Varied locations suggest varied goals: “getting away” to nature, to outdoor socializing, to the promise of open roads. Is nature integral or incidental?

Will Gill worked with a scrapyard owner and his son to locate a vintage truck and truck bed camper, then conjured a Newfoundland roadside campsite, typical yet mysteriously altered—locked, unused, all coated in white. In daylight, it was a bright invitation to speculation, reminiscence and selfies in its splendid setting. But in darkness the mundane became magical. In ephemeral glimpses created by camera flashes, flashlights or car headlights, Gill’s tableau became a glowing, spectral vision hovering in dark, uncertain space, open to the spectrum of individual responses.