The performance of “Macromareal Prelude” will be at 3pm TODAY (August 6) as planned – but in a NEW LOCATION:
Please Join Us at the Nonesuch Centre for the Performing Arts (the former Trinity United Church), in Parrsboro.
171 Queen Street.
Apologies for the change!! – but…. instruments + recording equipment + RAIN = NOT Good.
Very excited to be a part of the performance of a new original score by Scott Smallwood!
“Macromareal Prelude” will have its debut performance on Sunday August 6, beginning at 3:00 pm.
The performance will be held at First Beach in Parrsboro.
PLEASE NOTE: in case of inclement weather, the performance will MOVE to The Nonesuch Centre for the Performing Arts (Old Trinity United Church) in Parrsboro.
We are extremely happy to be working with several local musicians for this event:
SPECIAL THANKS to Ottawa House Museum for the loan of a ship’s bell from their collection of artifacts for this performance!
If you are in the area, please come!
Scott and I will be doing an artist talk on Friday August 4!
We will be gathering at Main & Station, 168 Main Street Parrsboro – at 7:30 pm.
Looking forward sharing some background on our respective practices with people, and also discussing our collaborative project, Macromareal!
Hope you can join us!
Had a great evening at the Evidence performance on July 27!
It was a real treat to hear Stephan and Scott again, and especially so since this was the first-ever in the new Nonesuch Centre for the Performing Arts.
It became readily apparent that these two musicians have worked together for some time – but I didn’t realize how long it’s been until that night. 17 years! A real testament to their friendship, and the way their respective practices as sound artists and composers complement one another.
I found it interesting too that the each use completely different software for working with the field recordings they use in live performance. As Stephan pointed out to me after the concert, they think differently, and so they’re each designed their workspaces/software in the way that best suits each of them. Made perfect sense, but for some reason it hadn’t occurred to me … and are what they did together even more remarkable somehow, for the seamlessness and symbiosis between them in performance.
I also (despite Stephan’s advice to the contrary) found myself watching the two of them as much as I spent time with my eyes closed, immersed in the soundscape they were creating. Their concentration, and the deep attentiveness they paid to one another and to the improvisational work that developed between them was a fantastic lesson in presence, and in how much we ‘forget to hear’ or simply ‘tune out’ in daily living. Admittedly, often with good reason – there’s not a little white noise to filter just to stay sane these days! But nonetheless – we also miss many amazing little moments through inattention.
And after the concert, there was a happy and unexpected bonus: a great post-performance Q&A session with the audience! Lovely to hear the feedback from several in attendance – there were many insightful, thoughtful questions and comments, which I’m sure was rewarding for Stephan and Scott. Always nice to know that your work has provoked thought and generated interesting connections and ideas for people!
A great night overall, and in a really beautiful space.
Just sorry that Stephan had to leave us to go back to Chicago so soon. I’m hoping he’ll be back sooner rather than later!
Had a lovely visit from fellow artist Emily Jan!
She was in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on a short visiting-friends-and-seeing-new-things holiday, and fortuitously, it worked out that she could come to Parrsboro for a couple of days.
We started at Partridge Island and the beach below Ottawa House, and then headed out to First Beach for some lunch and to see the Bay at high tide for the day (something I hadn’t seen at this location, despite all my trips out here!).
We had a blast touring around beaches and going on foraging adventures, talking art and life, and generally enjoying this magnificent locale.
Then we were off again to the beach a Diligent River, which is stunningly beautiful – but required patience, because the tide wasn’t exactly in our favour. It took some roaming and squishing through red Fundy mud to finally get across to the gravel spit to forage for goodies. Didn’t get much, but it was worth it many times over in any case; the view is a special thing.
Such a treat, in so many ways – it’s always nice when work and not-work come together with friends, and it becomes an opportunity to accomplish things AND just hang out!
Well, I made it out to Nova Scotia!
The talk we presented at the Fundy Geological Museum on the Boundary|Time|Surface project went well, and we had a nice group of people in the audience. Good questions and discussion, which is always the best part … the feedback is so much more interesting than just being a ‘talking head’ yammering on about things. (At least it is for me!) My thanks to Tim Fedak, the Director at the Fundy, for organizing this event!
Had a lovely couple of days in Parrsboro, NS too!
It’s a place with a sense of humour ….
We had a little time (not enough!) to explore the town, and meet some lovely people. It’s quite exciting to see what the creative community is doing there – and just how much is going on. Had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Krista Wells and having a lovely poke around the Art Lab cooperative space that she and some other artists have set up on Main Street. DIY projects like this are really exciting, all the more so because they grow organically out of the community itself. I also had a lovely chat with Alan Johnson from Parrsboro Creative, another local initiative with offices just down for Art Lab on Main Street. Parrsboro Creative is tapping the energy and renewal that the arts can bring to communities everywhere, linking interested people to a wide range of learning opportunities, and spearheading an artist relocation program. This is a town that has it’s art on, big time.
Just down Main Street from Art Lab, we discovered these little gems:
We also had the good fortune to discover Main & Station/Nonesuch Cafe, a gorgeous space housed in a retrofitted heritage post office. Judith and Harvey have created a truly cross-disciplinary environment, with so much to offer: a cafe, bookstore, and gallery; a place to listen to learn through talks and workshops, residency opportunities … it’s quite amazing.
Parrsboro is also a deeply beautiful place; the Bay of Fundy was as breathtaking and powerful as ever.
Have had a brief stop in Halifax … and next up is Newfoundland! Leaving tomorrow for Deer Lake, and from there to Gros Morne!
The adventure continues!
I’ve been busy with some home/nesting projects the last little while – putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls at the place in Halifax. People who know me know I really enjoy this kind of work – the physicality of it, and the satisfaction of coming to the end of a day and seeing immediately the products of one’s efforts. I posted to social media recently that ‘happiness is a good sash brush’ … it’s true. The tools can often make or break the quality of the work, no matter what that work might be.
It’s been a good break in many ways – from exhibition proposals, thinking about and writing grant applications, and pondering next steps in the studio soon to come.
And yesterday, I got a break of another sort: getting back out to the Bay of Fundy. A lovely couple of hours hiking the shoreline at Cheverie, and an ideal opportunity to check in on the site of Fault/Line, and see if any traces of the work remained.
It was much as I expected it … there wasn’t much of anything left of the work. There’s nothing quite like the power and reach of the Fundy tides to alter the landscape and to move rocks. If anything, I was surprised by how closely aligned the rocks still were in some areas.
A few shots here, showing what I found:
I’m really happy that this is all that’s left of the work. That fact – the reality of its return to being part of the jumble of rocks on the shore – is a liberating thing. The work is freed from its role as static artifact, from its ‘thingness’, from being an object that someone could potentially possess.
Instead, it becomes entirely a function or aspect of making, and is much less about any ‘authority’ I have as an artist/creator than it is about my engagement in a dialogue with the place and what I found … . I am a collaborator with the ocean and the land here, and their voices are integral to the work as it was made and as it has been (and continues to be) unmade … or remade, if you will.
The work is a moment in a continuum: all process.
The ‘product of the effort varies, depending on the moment at which the viewer engages with the place.