Tag: performance art

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Feeling, touching, and hearing performance art

Art is and, for the most part, always has been a feast for the eyes. It is delightful to look at a painting and recognize the emotion in the subject’s facial expression, to experience a multicoloured light show at a concert, and to watch costumes glittering as dancers sway and leap during a performance. But what if you could not see? How does one experience art if they cannot see?

Blindfolds are required throughout the performance and audience members are directed through the performance, through touch, music, and narration.

This is a question that Audrey-Anne Bouchard wants to answer. Bouchard is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, and professor at Concordia and the National Theatre School of Canada. Her latest show camille: un rendez-vous au délà du visuel is currently being presented at Montréal, Arts Interculturels (MAI) in the Plateau.

“I asked myself, what do people who cannot see at all retain from a dance performance or theatre?” said Bouchard. “They were telling me that they are always aware that [they are] missing a part of the show, so I came up with the hope of creating a piece where they wouldn’t be missing anything.”

camille: au délà du visuel, a performance piece which tells the story of a loss of friendship, aims to create an immersive, multi-sensory experience.

“I knew from the very beginning that [the show] was going to be immersive,” said Bouchard. “For me, it meant that the spectator would be immersed in the set of the piece; they would be able to understand through space, touch, sound, and texture, the environment in which it takes place.”

Inspired by her own disability, Bouchard created au délà du visuel, or beyond sight, a project aiming to enable a new audience－one who normally wouldn’t be able to access theatre and dance shows－to experience performance art.

“[The loss of my eyesight] came very progressively,” explained Bouchard, who suffers from Stargardt’s disease. “I started losing sight when I was around 17 but it took several months before they could find out what the origin of the problem was.”

Bouchard, who has always worked within the performing arts, noted that it only occurred to her about 10 years after the fact that her practice is very visual.

“It’s interesting because I created a job for myself where I can work with my eyes closed; I created a context where my disability is not a disability at all,” she said. ‘“I did a lot of research on the visual aspect of theatre and dance and I realized that this is kind of a paradox, that I’m losing sight and working with such a visual discipline.”

This inspired Bouchard to further her research and discover what it is that artists share through their art that does not necessarily have to be shared through sight.

“It was obvious then that the piece had to be immersive,” explained Bouchard. “To share with people, I need to be close with my performers.”

camille: au délà du visuel allows for the spectator to be fully immersed in the set, alongside the performers. Blindfolds are required for those without any visual impairments and audience members are directed through the performance, through touch, music, and narration.

“We also welcome people who have different kinds of disabilities,” said Bouchard. “We can guide you through a show if you’re in a wheelchair.”

Bouchard noted that the distance between the stage and the audience is what makes performance art very visual, by default.

“If we eliminate that distance then we have access to all of [the spectators’] tools,” she explained. “[We had to find out] how can you share the performance of an actor when you don’t see him.”

The development of the project took over three years and was very theoretical. “We created a new creative process methodology with this project,” Bouchard said. Through working with people who are visually-impaired and through research, Bouchard created a new way to work.

“To share with people, I need to be close with my performers,” explained Bouchard.

This new process methodology inspired Bouchard and the team of performers and artists she works with to develop a series of workshops.

“We designed a workshop to teach students or other artists how to work that way,” Bouchard said. “I think that now we have to keep working and creating work altogether for an audience living with visual disabilities and other disabilities that we would like to address as well.” Bouchard’s workshops, which will be both interactive and theoretical, are in the works and will be further developed over the course of the upcoming year.

“I see a desire from the arts consult to encourage more accessibility […] to all kinds of audiences who don’t normally have access to the arts,” said Bouchard. “It is becoming more and more present, and it’s changing. I’m benefiting from it, but I’m also hoping to help make it happen in the future; I hope that my work is also a great example of how the creative process that we use everyday works, but that there are so many other ways to create art that can be explored.”

camille: un rendez-vous au délà du visuel is being presented until Sept. 22, at Montréal, arts interculturels, at 3680 Jeanne-Mance St., suite 103. Further details regarding showtimes can be found at www.m-a-i.qc.ca

 

Photos courtesy of Laurence Gagnon Lefebvre

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Reimagining identity through participatory storytelling

Photo by Mackenzie Lad.

Birds Crossing Borders creates a collective memory

Home and identity are important themes concerning one’s individuality. So how do people displaced by conflict deal with the deep-rooted trauma that arises from events such as war? How do victims reclaim their identity and find a safe space?

Khadija Baker’s Birds Crossing Borders, a multimedia installation that includes sound, video and a performance involving falling water, aims to develop consciousness and remembrance through storytelling, with the ultimate intention of creating a collective memory.

Photo by Mackenzie Lad

A multi-disciplinary artist of Kurdish-Syrian descent, Baker’s cultural identity is present in her works. She shares the stories of refugees who have been displaced by the current conflicts in Syria. Her performative, video and sculptural installations explore socio-political themes, specifically in relation to identity, displacement and traumatic events such as war. Recurring themes in her works delve into unsettling feelings associated with the idea of home and aim to promote an understanding of cultural complexities.

Consisting of multiple screens highlighting the collective stories of refugees, Birds Crossing Borders reflects on the shared memories of home, particularly in relation to the identity shared by Syrian refugees.

“We are used to estrangement in many places. Even in my own country, I felt the estrangement,” shared one of the men featured in Baker’s compilation of recordings.

Addressing these sentiments of estrangement from one’s native land or hometown allows the viewer to further recognize the importance of home and the significant impact displacement has on those affected by war.

The exhibition creates a space of understanding and empathy by leaving room for discussion. The sharing of these collective stories serves as the representation of refugees and victims of war.

While the stories in the exhibit describe various individual struggles, Baker’s performance highlighted a unifying theme present among their experiences, by shedding light on the struggles of integrating into a new community.

Her performance focused on the identities of newly arrived refugees. With no distinct description, its primary purpose was left to the audience’s interpretation. Moreover, the nature of the piece demonstrated the prejudice associated with immigrants and refugees.

The centrepiece of the performance itself consisted of 14 transparent boxes. Each box contained varying amounts of water. A balloon filled with black water hung above the first box as a symbol of the common judgement of refugees as “contaminated.”

Photo by Mackenzie Lad

Barker began by squeezing the black water from the balloon into the first box. The water began to travel through a tube that connected each box to one another, and the remaining 13 boxes slowly began to fill with the black liquid. This illustrated what could be perceived as “contamination.” By the end of the performance, each box contained the same amount of water. The black liquid mixing with the water in the boxes is meant to demonstrate the integration of refugees, Baker explained. Although at first, they can be seen as “disrupting” the flow of society, in the end all will balance out. Society will equalize over time, Baker said; refugees want to contribute to society, and they do.

“Each human has to be an effective person. If we all long for and become attached to our identity in its limited meaning, we won’t reach any place,” said one of the refugees highlighted in Baker’s videos. “You chose a place to live in, and you have to be loyal and integrated and positive and interact within [it].”

Birds Crossing Borders is on display at Montréal Arts Interculturels (MAI) until Oct. 13. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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Nadège Grebmeier Forget puts the viewer on display

New exhibition at Espace Projet brings the audience into the artwork

Like an actor spending time in a psychiatric hospital to authentically prepare for their latest role, people immerse themselves in unfamiliar cultures in an attempt to add richness and complexity to their character.

In her latest exhibition, I, interdisciplinary performance artist Nadège Grebmeier Forget creates a performance space which brings the viewer into sharp focus through its minimalism and austerity. It would be wrong to reveal too much about the exhibition, as the description would disturb the natural response of any reader who may decide to participate in Forget’s work. However, it seems appropriate to give a sense of the response the artist might be trying to provoke from the audience.

The pale, pink-lighted space offers the viewer’s wandering eye so little to rest upon that they are inevitably drawn to the other people standing in the room. In this way, the other viewers become part of the exhibition.

However, in Forget’s work, the viewer is encouraged into a state of communal reflection in which they learn from fellow art lovers through their behaviour. According to the artists’ statement, in doing so, Forget hopes to create an inclusive space where personal revelations may be shared verbally, and perhaps even telepathically.

I is an ambitious project which puts our age of digital surveillance and the commodification of the self under a microscope. It makes the viewer reflect seriously on not only why, but how they consume culture. This exhibition brings us closer to ourselves and others by encouraging the scrutiny of those occupying the space.

Whether what we absorb finds its way into the very sinews of our being, or merely flits temporarily through some scene in the performance of our lives, I suggests human behaviour is comprised of a constantly shifting outer layer of knowledge, and a less receptive, yet more faithful core of wisdom.  I  challenges the viewer to be aware of how this process unfolds in the subjective and objective gestures of the audience.

When we are drawing on the outer layer to inform our actions and interactions, we are performing. Whereas when conduct comes from our inner being, we are expressing ourselves.

If there is a problem with the exhibition, it may lie in the fact that it is almost too minimal. Intellectual fire requires a spark to ignite, but I wanted the viewer to conjure a flame from nowhere. So a vague sense of mystification was perhaps the most palpable reaction in the exhibition space.

Nonetheless, this sense of awkwardness is a genuine human reaction from the inner core, and observing how people attempt to engage and be enthusiastic about nothing was an interesting and informative experience.

I runs at Espace Projet until April 22. The exhibition space is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission to the exhibition is free. There will be a special presentation from the artist on April 7 from 5p.m. to 7 p.m.

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Drawing a line between truth and fiction in marketing

Drib spins an original tale with a truthful core by embellishing the details

Amir Asgharnejad is a Norwegian Internet performance artist. Or, at least, that’s what he calls himself. He’s more of a provocateur who likes to see how far he can push boundaries.

His videos, in which he instigates physical conflicts with people who are usually much bigger and stronger than he is, typically end with him getting beaten and bloodied.

His Internet fame led to him being called by an advertising and marketing company to help promote Drib, an energy drink. Drib, directed and written by Kristoffer Borgli, tells the story of the events that followed. Facts and embellishments intermingle to create a hilarious docu-fiction that brings the audience right to the middle of the pretentious L.A. marketing world. The film premiered at the South by SouthWest Festival in Austin, Texas on March 12.

In the film, Asgharnejad, who plays himself, agrees to become a spokesperson for this international, American-based ad agency. To him, this becomes the stage for his next great performance. To them, it means capitalizing on the Internet trend of stupid stunts going viral. Their target market is boys aged 13 to 17, and they are positive that Amir holds the key to this demographic. Creative director Brady Thompson (Brett Gelman) has a vision for the energy drink campaign. Describing energy drinks as something that loosely keeps a balance between immortality and collapsing from exhaustion, he flies Asgharnejad over from Norway to take part in the project.

The film makes a farce of the marketing agency and the God complex of creative director Thompson, who keeps insisting Asgharnejad is not ‘part’ of the corporate world—his line of work just happens to be ‘in’ it.

The story is a meta-satirical analysis, poking fun at the unglamorous reality of marketing, but also poking fun at itself. It is a movie filming people filming people, told from Asgharnejad’s point of view. Because of this, there is a slight slant in the ridiculousness, as the characters involved are all over the top. The clients are hard to deal with. The actors are finicky. Thompson’s protectiveness over his creative work is overwhelming. Drib tries to not take itself too seriously, yet the ‘seriousness’ of the situation is what’s funny.

One of the challenges of the film was working with Asgharnejad—a point made clear by breaking the fourth wall to let the audience know. Whenever he felt Borgli’s vision was taking the film in a direction he didn’t agree with, Asgharnejad would improvise and change his lines or actions—the outtakes of which are included in the film. This makes Drib not only a movie about Asgharnejad’s experiences, but his stubbornness as well. It also serves to remind the viewer that, although the core story is true, there were creative licenses taken.

For more information on Drib, visit their website.

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Montreal puppetry lovers unite

Fluffy puppets like this one are going to be surrounding puppeteer Jesse Stong as he creates shows from Oct 19 to 23. Photo by Jesse Stong

Concordia student Jesse Stong will be creating puppet shows for five days straight

Concordia student Jesse Stong is bringing his extreme puppetry show, <3 Puppets (pronounced Love Puppets), to the Mainline Gallery from Oct 19 to 23. For five days, Stong will be living in the gallery and creating performances using puppets. The gallery itself is only open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., however, curious viewers are free to take photos and watch him through the gallery windows after the gallery closes for the night at 11 p.m.

Surrounded by his puppets, his goal is to be constantly creating and exploring his relationship with them—something that he said he hasn’t had time for over the past few years. “These five days are the first in 10 years that I will have to myself to just play with puppets,” he said. “I want to just be able to play with them like I did when I was a kid.”

Stong’s love of puppets first ignited when he was given a puppet at the age of seven. “It was a gorilla puppet,” he said, “At that point I was in love with Jane Goodall.”  Stong added that he just got her autograph about two weeks ago.

Puppets soon became a large part of Stong’s life. He was a shy child but he said he found his confidence with puppets. “If I had a puppet with me, it’s like it wasn’t me onstage,” he said. It’s these memories that Stong wants to reflect on during his time at the Mainline Gallery. Stong wants the performance to be filled with spontaneous creations and come from a genuine, un-rehearsed place.

Therefore, Stong said he hasn’t been preparing for the performance—he’s just been focusing on what practical things he will need, like Tylenol, ice buckets and slings to soothe his arms from the strenuous effort of lifting the puppets all day.

“I don’t want to predict what I’m going to do, so I’m trying not to think about it,” he said. “Maybe I’ll run out of ideas before it’s over, but I want it to keep surprising me.”

Stong said he wants this to be an educational experience for the viewers who will get to observe the creations and a puppeteers love of puppets, as well as the unpredictable outcome along with him. The performance is part of his master’s thesis in art education.
Stong has a bachelor’s degree in social work from Ryerson, as well as a degree in playwriting from the National Theatre School in Montreal. He has created playwriting workshops for the Quebec government and wrote a play, Waterweight, which is currently on tour with Geordie Productions. The play presents the topic of body issues to elementary school audiences in Ontario and Quebec.

For more information about <3 Puppets, checkout the Facebook page or swing by the Mainline Gallery this weekend from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. There will be a cash bar on Saturday night, and if you want to watch Stong end the performance—which he said may involve him simply collapsing into a heap—you can stop by Sunday night at 11 p.m.

Check out The Concordian’s exclusive video of the performance below.

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Modified: The power of body art

Warning: some moderately graphic images

It was early evening around supper time when the doors to the exhibit swung open. The arrivals were a bit slow at first, but there was plenty of time to admire the beautiful, edgy artwork.

The exhibit’s theme, a topic seldom discussed, is called Modified and its theme needs no introduction. Body modifications, seen as taboo in many places, are growing in popularity in urban cities.

No matter your walk of life, the identity carved through blood, sweat and tears is the same for everyone. When you sit down on that chair, lay down on that table, everyone is truly equal.

We all suffer for it. That much is true. But the result is arguably, one of the most pronounced forms of expression, and modern beauty that unifies us all under the banner of this modified subculture.

Some may call it a sex-thing, others discriminate. But like all things beautiful, art appeals to some, not all. All prejudices aside, though, Modified brings to light this form of beauty from the raw to the erotic.

Jennie Philpott, the artist behind the paintings is presenting her art at the Rats9 gallery at 372 Ste-Catherine Ouest, door #530. It may not be a museum, but each piece reverberates with meaning, oozes style and shows us a topic that’s seldom explored.

But the first night didn’t end with the art. As of 8 p.m., the venue began to fill with the audience who had come to look earlier, and new, interested parties. On the first night, a frontal suspension presentation was scheduled in honor of the exhibit’s opening.

Pat Pierce (from Mauve piercing studio here in Montreal) and his volunteer model for the presentation, Lynne Quesnel, made their way to the venue, with the tools they would need to make it happen.

The hooks were no joke, and these would be used to hold the weight of the model for the duration of the suspension. Four hooks in total would be used.

 

When the preparation was complete, the piercing began.

Pain was on the menu, but so was the rush of adrenalin and endorphin that comes with it. As each of the hooks effortlessly made their way through the professionally selected spots on Lynne’s body, her expression changed from pained, to relieved and finally settled on euphoric.

Once all four hooks were in place, a few brief minutes were given for Lynne to recuperate. This was her fourth time doing such a presentation, and not once was there hesitation or fear in her eyes.

No more than a few minutes later was she standing up, walking amongst the crowd, as if the hooks had always been a part of her. She sipped on some water to keep hydrated. Comfortable or not, there’s some loss of blood, and it’s always a good idea to stay hydrated.

The suspension began, no more than half an hour later. Pat adjusted the rope and slowly, meticulously checking with Lynne to make sure that everything was alright.

Unflinching, and with a smile, she confirmed that everything was good to go.

Thirty minutes, she spent on the ropes. Pat shortening their length progressively, and the presentation carrying on with the crowd in stunned, appreciative silence.

As the presentation came to close, and Pat was getting ready to cut the ropes, the last round of pictures were taken by the audience.

A rush of emotions surged through Lynne after the ropes were taken out. Exhausted, but satisfied. A round of applause followed, as the crowd complimented her and Pat for the beautiful performance that complimented the exhibit’s grand opening.

Even if you harbour no piercings or tattoos of your own, Modified has a powerful message that spends no time trying to hide from onlookers. It’s bold, beautiful and powerful, and the suspension that happened on opening night served as a perfect crowning point to this awesome, unforgettable exhibit.

 

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