Tag: Mile Zero Dance

Just a very few more days …

… and Chaotic Bodies will close at Spazio Performativo.

IMG_4205

Amazing how fast the month has gone by – I’ve been too buried in the never-ending-cold-that-should-be-spring here to actually grasp that time is really passing quite quickly, and we are over 1/4 of the way through the year.

It has been a great experience re-working this project for static exhibition – being able to look at it again with fresh eyes, dig back into the ideas simmering inside it – and see what  potential there was in the conversations between media.

IMG_4170

My sincere thanks to Mile Zero Dance for the opportunity to show this work!! And my thanks to everyone involved in the RUCKUS dance project for allowing me to develop this project further, and to use the footage from rehearsals and performance in the video work!

SO: if you want to check out Chaotic Bodies before it disappears into storage again, you have until SUNDAY April 8th. I am striking the show on Monday!

If you have the opportunity, see the work both in the daytime and at night: I have a video work rear-projected in the window that is best seen after dark, and the installation and drawings are available for viewing during opening hours daytime at Mile Zero, and of course in advance of evening events.

Lancaster Chaotic Bodies Promo 4

If you get over there – drop me a line and let me know your thoughts! I’d like to hear from you.

738f7f31-9f1d-4e8e-aeda-63306550ee97

by Categories: abarts, Community, Dance, drawing, Exhibitions, featured, new work, Projects, Sculpture, yegarts, yegdtTags: , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Chaotic Bodies Opening Thursday Mar 8!

I am excited to be presenting a dance-infused project in Mile Zero Dance’s Spazio Gallery!

The multi-media installation Chaotic Bodies will be on view in the window gallery until April 8th, so stop by Mile Zero Dance and have a look. (after dark the work takes on a new life!)

If you are in the area, please join us for the Opening Reception for this work at Mile Zero’s Spazio Performativo on Thursday March 8, from 6:30 – 8:00pm, and stay for Dirt Buffet Cabaret, curated by Liam Cody.

Chaotic Bodies is a series of works derived from photographic and video documentation of RUCKUS, a work-in-progress choreographed by Anastasia Maywood, Krista Posnyiuk, and Alison Kause. My goal with Chaotic Bodies is to explore the visual echoes of my engagement with the dancers and the choreography, with their bodies in space, and their responses through movement to the sculptural work I created.

I would like to extend my deep thanks to Anastasia Maywood, Krista Posnyiuk, Alison Kause, Ainsley Hillyard, Kate Stashko, & Alida Kendell for welcoming me into their work on RUCKUS (past & future), and for their generous an insightful feedback as I worked with them to make the ideas specific to their creative process tangible. I am grateful also for their permission to use footage and stills from rehearsals and performances in the presentation of this project at Mile Zero Dance.

by Categories: Community, Dance, Exhibitions, featured, new work, Performance, Projects, Sculpture, yeg, yegartsTags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Thinking about Bodies & Control

I am looking toward the Opening of Chaotic Bodies this Thursday at Mile Zero Dance – and not surprisingly, I am thinking a great deal about relationship, space, and how our bodies convey information.

What we communicate with gesture and movement is so vital to our understanding – to meaning-making – but also to the way and amount of space we occupy.

All this to say: one of the things I wanted to consider in the creation of Chaotic Bodies was how bodies communicate ideas of control, balance, containment, connection, release … .

And then I came across the amazing work of artist/metalsmith Jennifer Crupi.

Ornamental Hands: Figure One (Shown worn) sterling silver, 15″ x 8.5″ x 5.5″ Permanent Collection, Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum ©Jennifer Crupi

So much food for thought here: the controlled gesture. The canonization of particular movements that render them significant, understood as physical language that conveys information through relationship to other, to space.

Power Gesture
aluminum, steel, acrylic, laser print, vellum,
8″ x 8″ x 6″
Power Gesture is an implement that requires the user to assume the authoritative “steepled fingers” gesture. This position exudes confidence and is often used by one who has the upper hand in a situation. Psychologists believe assuming a posture or gesture will make one feel as they would if they did the gesture naturally. So for a confidence boost, Power Gesture is the implement of choice. © Jennifer Crupi

I find the language here telling too. The Power Gesture object requires the user to assume a particular position, as do all of these sculptural objects:  (con)forming to set positions to send a message.

Pondering further: if we wish to convey information bodily, how do we control or contain that which we wish to remain hidden? What if we can’t? What if our actions in space and in relationship express or reflect what we see around us, rather than what we feel? Or conversely: what if we cannot help but express the uncontrollable within us?

These thoughts & questions, amongst others, have informed the work in Chaotic Bodies. I have no fixed answers – but am enjoying the journey through the questions.

by Categories: abarts, Artists, Dance, Design, Exhibitions, featured, new work, Performance, Projects, Sculpture, yeg, yegarts, yegdtTags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

SubArctic – Amazing!

What an amazing SubArctic Improv last night!

I am continually blown away by the diverse and powerful talent we have here in Edmonton. I’m also inspired and thrilled by our creative community’s generosity of spirit – the way people come together to make work, and give freely of themselves and their creativity. These people share with each other and share with their audiences – and we all are better for it.

A better city, a better community, creative and otherwise.

*yes, if it seems I am gushing a bit, I am – no apologies. It was a great night!

I must extend my thanks to everyone that made this event happen: Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis who curate Subarctic Improv, Mile Zero staff and volunteers for being such excellent hosts, and all the people who shared the stage: Kate Stashko, Vincent Forcier, Pigeon Breeders, Nicolas Arnaez, Thunder Lightning Heart & Adrian LaChance.

It was an honour to work with you all.

Some preliminary pics from last night, courtesy of Ernest at Studio E Photography, below.

The bubble wrap/LED light objects and bubble wrap costumes were my contribution to the night.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Enjoy!

by Categories: Artists, Community, featured, Projects, Sculpture, yeg, yegarts, yegdtTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

SubArctic Improv – coming soon!

11902517_10153070749008302_8569993800830781340_n

I am really looking forward to participating in this month’s SubArctic Improv, which will happen on Thursday January 21st, starting at 8pm. This series is curated by two amazing women: Jen Mesch and Allison Balcetis. The lovely people at Mile Zero Dance host this series, and the Spazio Performativo is a beautiful and welcoming space to be working in. (all the details are in the links!)

This is a delightful opportunity for me – a moment to play a little, stretch my thinking, try things, be funny and fearless. I’ve long wanted the opportunity to make work for and with moving human bodies in space (dancers and movement specialists), and so when Jen kindly invited me to participate in SubArctic, I couldn’t say no.

This series harkens back to a project I had roughly a decade ago with the Edmonton Poetry Festival: a multidisciplinary jam called CORTEX, that I pulled together with Phil Jagger. I’ve always thought that the silos within which we create in the arts here were limiting, somewhat artificial divisions (not to say that cross-disciplinary work hasn’t become more prevalent in recent years, but this kind of work could happen more IMO). There’s so much to learn from other disciplines’  creative process and from the people who live in it. Working outside our respective comfort zones – making that leap into risk –  is always a great way to come at what we do with fresh eyes.

So – to that end – my contribution to this month’s Improv will feature unconventional (and interactive) materials, and provides a new and playful way for me to consider: light (and its absence), stars, hibernation, insulation (because, heck it’s Edmonton and January, and well … cold!), security, exposure … .

A nod to how fragile real safety is, perhaps; or a fun way to explore what it means to have the illusion of safety, and actually be really vulnerable. Riffing and punning on the idea of exposure, privacy, security, ‘nesting’, voyeurism, exhibitionism …….

All potentially heady/serious/intense stuff. And all very real concerns in the world – but here, for this moment, I wanted to flip all of that on its ear, and have a little FUN – be a little silly, inject some humour and play into the mix.

SO … here’s hoping that happens! (it’s improv, ANYthing could happen)

12471701_10103207307971120_1919745433039828869_o
I hope to see lots of familiar and unfamiliar faces on January 21st! Looking forward to it immensely!!
by Categories: Artists, Community, featured, ProjectsTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments