The Space Between Us

Into roughly the 8th week(??) of isolation (time has become incredibly fluid for me), and as the days pass, I think increasingly about what will be in the “time after.” Everyone is in such a rush to “get back to normal,” to reopen businesses and relax some of the protocols that have kept many of us safe and healthy – if not employed. I do absolutely sympathize with those who want to re-open their businesses, who are desperate to earn an income to support themselves and their families. It’s at least as frightening to have the economic rug pulled suddenly out from under you as it is to come face to face with a pandemic. This is about survival, on so many levels.

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https://www.carfac.ca/news/2020/03/30/a-notice-to-our-members-and-our-community-regarding-covid-19/

BUT. I am going to articulate  massively unpopular opinion.

I DO NOT WANT to get back to “normal life.” Not soon, and if I am honest, not ever.

I’ve been thinking a great deal about how ‘normal life’ breaks people and communities through its enactment of privilege, how many people are silenced in so many ways, how at its root this is all about the trade of labour and creativity to enrich the few on the backs of many – and at the expense of the environment and all other beings. How I desperately, urgently, passionately want it all to CHANGE for the better on the other side of this. How afraid I am that it won’t. And how I feel increasingly paralyzed by the prospect of a ‘return to before.’

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This is true for me in relation to the broader culture in which I live, and for the sector in which I work. This is a moment in which we could – and should – recognize that not only will the ‘new normal’ be with us for a long time (2 metres for the win!), but the ‘old normal’ is something that we should neither wish for nor return to. It also may be moot – because the ‘old normal’ may not exist for much longer, regardless of what some (or most) people desire.

“Normal” or “business as usual” has been exposed with utter clarity by the pandemic:  the glaring gaps in care, the enormous disparities that are actively cultivated and maintained by the systems in which we live and work. How many people have no choice but to risk their health and that of their loved ones & work in this time, in order to survive; how the most vulnerable of us have even fewer options to remain safe and healthy.

How many of us have seen our entire sector shut down, cancelled, income evaporated, in already tenuous livelihoods.

So this is a point in which we can CHOOSE what kind of world we want to live in moving forward. And we need to ask these questions of ourselves – NOW – while we have the time and opportunity to do so.

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What are you prepared to do to create a more equitable culture and community as we come out of this? How can we work together to make that happen?

What aspects of ‘normal life’ are you happy to see gone?

I leave you with these questions – and encourage your replies … and also with an excellent essay by Lou Sheppard; they articulate far more eloquently than I some of the things that have been worrying me about what comes next.

Take Care of Each Other.

Branching Out …

A good way to celebrate the Season and start toward a New Year:

I am very happy to announce that a selection of my work  is now available for sale or rental through the Art Gallery of Alberta!

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I think this is a great program from the AGA – renting work is a very cost-effective way to live with art you love, and – if you can’t live without it – a portion of your rental fees for the first 6 months of a rental can go toward a purchase!

And Art Rental and Sales at the AGA showcases the work of more than 150 Alberta artists working in a wide range of media and styles – so it feels especially good to be in such good company, and working with an organization that supports local creators.

A nice start to the week!

Slippages – Score and Performance

UBC Symphony Orchestra performs Deborah Carruthers’ “slippages” from UBC School of Music on Vimeo.

Here’s a video of the performance of Slippages, edited by Jonathan Girard to show the relationship between the Graphic Score written by Deborah Carruthers & the performance the audience heard.

It was great to be involved in this project; my thanks to Deborah, Jonathan, and John William for being such great collaborators, and for welcoming me in to this project!

Enjoy.

Residencies: A Primer

I will be presenting a Professional Development talk in Edmonton on March 27th 2018. This will be an all-access Webinar, so anyone interested outside of Edmonton can participate as well. Please see the details below to register.

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Free for Visual Arts Alberta ~ CARFAC members, $45 to non-members.
RSVP by 4pm on Friday, March 23. For more information, contact Sharon at (780) 421-1731 or email us.

If you prefer learning in the company of others, you may participate in Edmonton at the Visual Arts Alberta ~ CARFAC Project Space. 3rd Floor, 10215 112 St. Edmonton, AB.

One more Week, and an Event!

This is the last week that 21st Century Nesting Practices is on exhibition at the McMullen Gallery. Amazing how fast the time has gone by!

The exhibition closes  on Sunday February 25th; morning of the 26th, I’ll be in the gallery, packing up the work.

In the mean time though – pop in if you have a chance, and if you like poetry as well as visual art, there’s a special event happening in conjunction with the exhibition this week:

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I had the pleasure of working with these lovely writers a few years ago – and I am so happy that they are bringing their work to the gallery to share in amongst all my nests!

Almost all of the bird’s nests in 21st Century Nesting Practices are in fact magpie nests – that resilient, ever-so-smart-and-sassy bird that is such a big part of the avian landscape here.

I’m looking forward to this very much – and hope some of you can make it too.

21st Century Nesting Practices

I am extremely happy to say that the McMullen Gallery  at the University of Alberta Hospital will be hosting my exhibition 21st Century Nesting Practices! 

This iteration of the work will feature a new video piece, and a soundscape created from a combination of my own field recordings and a selection of recordings from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology holdings.

The Exhibition Opening Reception is January 10, 2018 from 7pm – 9pm.

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If you are in the Edmonton area, please stop in! The exhibition is up until February 25, 2018.

My thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for their support in realizing the soundscape for this exhibition, and to the McMullen for hosting me.

Thanks Also to Julianna Barabas & John Waldron for their invaluable assistance in making this exhibition possible.

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Growth

Have been pondering many (often divergent) ideas over the holidays.

It’s been part of the process of getting back “into it” after the time away – thinking about what directions do I want to take in my practice over the next while for sure, and getting myself sorted for the commitments I already have (more on that soon!)  – but this pondering has also been about ideas of growth and change on a broader level.

What I want to help manifest in the world.

What the world can teach us about how to manifest beauty of all sorts on an ongoing basis, if we but pay attention. See, rather than merely look.

So it wasn’t entirely surprising that I came across the video below. Remarkable work, and much fuel for thought here. Enjoy – and best of this New Year to you.

Crystal Birth from Emanuele Fornasier on Vimeo.

 

Adventure Time!

I’m sitting in the airport, waiting to board … and pondering what the next weeks will bring. I’m off to a residency in Parrsboro Nova Scotia for the next month.

Heading back to Main & Station to work with Scott Smallwood on our Macromareal project! Feels a bit odd, actually – after the year’s worth of planning and thinking – to actually be on the verge of doing.

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Excited, and a little nervous, and really really happy and grateful for the opportunity.

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Tomorrow!

The CARFAC National Conference and AGM is tomorrow – Saturday, June 3rd!

It’s going to be a good weekend, and it’s exciting to know that here will be visual artists from all over the country here this weekend, discussing issues  and advocacy initiatives pertinent to artists’ careers.

There’s also going to be programming Saturday Evening and Sunday afternoon – so it’s not ‘all work and no play.’

I’m looking forward very much to hearing from other parts of the country, and to reconnecting with artists I haven’t seen for far too long.

Information below – there’s still time to register and join us:

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