This multi-framed work weaves several inter-connected threads of loss: of land and agriculture, of property and business. The archival materials in the work have been gleaned from public and personal sources such as the National Archive of Canada, in the story of a nineteenth century aboriginal woman and land rights activist Nahnebahwequay (1824-65) and more recently organic farmer Michael Schmmidt, from excerpts of the Farmer's Advocate and Family Herald publications 1958-1968, also a trip into the artist's familial past, and the rise and fall of his family's slaughterhouse and pork processing plant, Hoffman Meats (1951-81), in Kitchener, Ontario. Slaughterhouse first manifested as an installation for the Land/Slide exhibition in 2013, at the Markham Museum, where it could be viewed through several peek holes in the barn board of an old barn, which originated as a 1920's slaughterhouse in southern Ontario.

"Hoffman's past is a place of hidden or secret knowledge that you have to prise out like a spy or eavesdropper" - Robert Everett-Green, The Globe and Mail, Oct 10 2013

Voice, Text, and Archival Sources:
William Fitzgerald, Aerial Photography of Grey County
Michael Schmidt at Glencolton Farms, Grey County
Farmer's Advocate and Family Herald publications (1958-1968)
Phil Hoffman Sr. (1926-2011) and Hoffman Meats, Kitchener (1951-1981)
Nahnebahwequa (1824-65) courtesy Grey Roots Museum, Owen Sound

Production format: Hand-processed 16mm and digital