Carole Itter is a writer, artist, performer, and filmmaker. Her sculptures, assemblages, collages, installations, performances and writings are strongly influenced by the people and places where she has lived, and frequently reflect social and political issues. Itter is represented in the collections of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Public Library and the Canada CouncilArt Bank.
Art
Itter's 1972 piece, Personal Baggage has been described as a key work in Vancouver art. This piece acted to shift art from the gallery setting into the physical world by removing a cedar log from Roberts Creek, British Columbia, disassembling it, and then transporting it to Lockeport, Nova Scotia where it was reassembled. This process was documented by Itter and published in a book entitled The Log's Log. Her 1979 photo series Euclid, documents her partner, Al Neil, tracing geometric figures in the sand of Cates Park in North Vancouver. These photographs were then projected onto one of Neil's live piano performances and used as cover art for his album Fog and Boot. In 1994, Itter collaborated with Luke Blackstone and Al Neil on her installation of found objects emerging from an antique organ that were painted and gilded for her exhibit Where the Streets are Paved with Gold: A Tribute to a Canadian Immigrant Neighbourhood. Itter claimed she was inspired by immigrants in her Vancouver community who shared their experiences of Canada with her, calling it "a place where the streets were paved with gold."
Writing
In 1972, Itter had a daughter, Lara, with Vancouver poet, Gerry Gilbert. After battling depression for many years, Lara Gilbert committed suicide in 1995. Itter edited Lara's extensive journals and published them under Lara's name in I Might Be Nothing. With Daphne Marlatt, Itter compiled and edited a history of Vancouver's Strathcona neighbourhood titled Opening Doors: Vancouver's East End. Their book was republished as Opening Doors in Vancouver's East End in 2011. Other works by Itter include The Log's Log and Whistle Daughter Whistle. Her writing has also been featured in literary magazines such as Room of One's Own.
