Last night we attended an evening of performance by emerging and not-so emerging artists. ( I wonder at the need to qualify artists in terms of “emerging”, “mid-career” and “ established”--- classification models usually employed by funders).
It is Gabriela Rosende’s first performance and for Jason Chinn and Katherine Krampol it is an opportunity to show and develop some new material. Then there are Julianna and Todd who have been practicing performance for years. Julianna wraps the audience up in a 250 square foot radius floorspace with rope and equates this cramped space to the allotment of living space for alternative low-income housing currently being designed in Vancouver, Tokyo and other cities at the moment. Todd Janes declares that his performance is influenced by all of us and is a personal thank you to all the artists. He eats strawberries and weeds (from Nicole’s and Irene’s performances), uses chalk from Emma’s performance, posts notes on a clothesline (reminiscent of Sara’s archive across the hall), and performs other references to his own experience as curator and artist within the context of living in Edmonton. I was particularly affected when he spoke about how the sound of a thunderstorm and rain on the prairies frightened him, as he poured baking soda over his body, and then vinegar. The chemical reaction between the soda and vinegar created a bubbling and crackling sound as the vinegar ran down his body and dropped to the floor to the sound of intense rain.
The festival is over tomorrow and so this event marks the impending end of our time in Edmonton. It is a small, personal and intimate crowd—mostly the artists from the festival, Latitude staff and board members and the gallery crowd. These kinds of gatherings- a staple in many artist-run and parallel centres in Canada and abroad- still have a grassroots ethic that encourages artists to develop ideas and work within a community of peers. This is a necessary forum for developing art practices and fostering cross-dialogue with other artists, interested publics and arts supporters. It remains me that artists are a public audience too. So often this fact is overlooked.
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5 comments:
Dear Tagny,
Yes. Artists are a public, too.
So often we discount ourselves in so many ways. And your sharing this very profound thought at the end of the festival is a really really big deal for me. Wishing I were there for the vinegar hitting the alkaline to make the foam; and, indeed, so many other events and alchemies of performance art. Your blogg has been inspirational and such a great daily touchstone! Missing you and everyone already.
Love,
Margaret Dragu
I came to the performance last night and liked soem of it, some of it not very much. I liked the woman crawling out of the garbage was good - perhaps the best part of that work. the speach was theatre - in a bad way, the roping thing was okay. BUt the piece by Todd was fuckin' awesome! I really liked the lipstix bit at the end and the playing with gender was great. The sound of the rain and the vinegar was powerful and a bit jarring. I was unsure where it was going, but I was totally capitivated the whole time. It was strong when he left and everyone went to the line with the cards and read them. I am still thinking about the piece. I believe that it will stay with me for a long time.
The whole night was pretty tame to me. I thought it was a sad state that the 'emerging artists' had very little to show. Seemed like a room full of geeky acedemics. A lot of talk. Little action. Disappointing.
in response to anonymous: i think that it is important to consider that some of the emerging artists were displaying their first performance that night. Emerging can mean many things in the same way that performance can mean many things. Some of the my favorite performances that I have ever encountered have not had a lot of action, were pretty tame.
When we consider that the whole festival was open for artists to experiment with different ways of working I think that it seems infinately fitting that the emerging artists that showed at the cabaret were also offered the same opportunity for experimentation. Because of this they were able to make work that may not have been polished, or finished. They were able to experiment in an open environment and take chances.
For me the night provided a lot of opportunities for consideration and thought - which I always find interesting and intriguing. I am sorry that you found the evening disappointing, because I think there were a lot of interesting things that happened that night. Although I am still trying to work through my thoughts about some of the performances, I don't think that i would be able to dismiss them all as disappointing.
then again, i'm pretty sure that i qualify as a "geeky academic."
I am pretty far from a geeky academic - I have not engaged in much performance art. In many ways this was a great re-introduction to me. I saw the posters everywhere and thought that LAT53 did a great job of promoting stuff. Edmonton is a theater town so presenting work that is different is great.I thought that the work was diverse and that is good. There were some things that did not interest me and there was a variety of things that was good. The performance on Saturday night - I missed the first one and came in during the speech with the guy in the wheelchair who was then not in a wheelchair was disturbing and offensive. I thought the rope woman was cute and made a point. The last piece I though was wicked and funny and then in the middle of laughing I got serious. When art makes you think that is a good thing, right? I can still taste dust and smell vinegar. I am hoping for a thunderstorm soon. Thanks for the work.
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