News Release

11/14/2007
Subvert Smells Like Yukon Alternative Gameswear Where? Gallery officially opened

WHITEHORSE (SLYwire) Smells Like Yukon has officially opened the Subvert Smells Like Yukon Alternative Gameswear Where? Gallery. The gallery was developed in response to the City of Whitehorse’s campaign to build an online gallery featuring images of people wearing their orange volunteer uniforms long after the 2007 Canada Winter Games have wrapped up.

“Whitehorse mayor Bev Buckway has challenged people to flaunt where they’ve been in their pretty orange jackets,” says gallery curator J.D. Sparkles. “To us, this challenge seemed to lack vision and imagination. We don’t really care where your gameswear has been or even is. Instead, we’re asking people to show us where they wish their gameswear could go. We want to highlight arresting images that reflect Yukoners’ hopes and dreams about all the great—and even not-so great—things they might accomplish while wearing gaudy orange fabric.”

Anyone with the ability to manipulate digital images is invited to post their mash-ups to the brand new Gameswhere public group gallery located in Flickr's trendy gallery district. (You must have a Flickr account to view and contribute to the group.) The only real rule is that the image must feature—in some way, shape or form—a Canada Winter Games jacket.

“We’re sorry it had to come to this,” says Sparkles, “but we aren’t optimistic about our first image being accepted by the City’s official gallery, so we decided to take pre-emptive action by setting up this alternative site.”

Given the ambitious scope of the Subvert Smells Like Yukon Alternative Gameswear Where? Gallery, Sparkles expects the site to attract slightly less interest than the City of Whitehorse's official site, which presently features twelve submissions, including the mayor’s. Interestingly, three of the images feature various local guides and drivers from Ladakh, India wearing volunteer jackets.

“After seeing this, we realized that Smells Like Yukon’s on-air comments about orange jackets collecting dust in basements—or something to that effect—was a little off base, as Mayor Buckway previously pointed out on CBC Radio,” Sparkles says. “Apparently, rather than simply neglecting their jackets, Canada Games volunteers are actually traveling great distances to pawn these precious mementos off on unsuspecting foreigners. That’s assuming, of course, that the models were allowed to keep the jackets and weren’t simply exploited for some cheap publicity.”

Sparkles points out that if the Subvert Smells Like Yukon Alternative Gameswear Where? Gallery proves even moderately successful, it will go a long way towards overcoming the disappointment about Smells Like Yukon’s failed bid to nominate the Haines Junction Muffin as one of Canada’s Seven Wonders.

“The other upshot of this whole project is the title sponsorship by Subvert Marketing Inc.,” Sparkles adds. “It’s a nice fit because the inspiration for the alternative gallery came from Subvert founder Geof Harries, and the whole idea is also kind of… subversive. We hope to use this exciting model to involve other local businesses in future Smells Like Yukon initiatives.”

Harries was not on hand for the grand opening of the Subvert Smells Like Yukon Alternative Gameswear Where? Gallery, nor was he available to comment on the event. This is probably due to the fact that he won’t know anything about his groundbreaking sponsorship until he stumbles across this press release.

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For more information, contact:

A/Media & Public Relations Officer
Smells Like Yukon
Whitehorse, Yukon