Over the past decade, the North, or at least the idea of it, has slowly made its way back to our consciousness, a notion that the North is synonymous with a lawless, rugged freedom. But at first glance Yellowknife, NWT is actually a somewhat disappointing modern capital city. There are tall buildings, yoga pants, a Walmart and a lot of government jobs. None the less, if you dig a little deeper, you do find that alternative off-grid reality. Barely five minutes from the downtown core, wedged between million dollar houses, you find little shacks where people exist without running water and use honey buckets for toilets.When Alison McCreesh moved from Quebec to Yellowknife she quickly fell in love with the quirky ways in which it seemed possible to live up North. Part travelogue, part comic book, part love story and part guide to the North and its quirky inhabitants Ramshackle spans her first summer north of 60.

Since moving to the Northwest Territories in 2009, Alison McCreesh has travelled extensively throughout Northern Canada and the Arctic. Through her gallery work, illustrations, sketchbooks and comics, Alison documents and explores the contemporary North. Her work dwells on the way northern identity shifts rapidly as tradition and modernity collide and coexist North of 60: sometimes in confrontation with one another, sometimes evolving in parallel and sometimes mixing to create striking hybrids. Alison currently lives in Yellowknife in a small shack on the shore of Great Slave Lake - with high speed internet and no running water.

Alison McCreesh's profile page