(in) visible cities performance festival

(in)visible cities thank-you's

2008-09-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

Rapporteur/blogger Jeanne Randolph spotted at the Little Saigon panel. Photo by Scott Stephens.

(in)visible cities performance festival would like to thank:

* our enthusiastic, engaged and supportive audiences and workshop participants,

* Jeanne Randolph and Scott Stephens for their insightful blog texts and photos,

* Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan, Kim Kozzi, Dai Skuse, Jessica Thompson, Nhan Duc Nguyen and Cheryl L'Hirondelle for their engaging and intelligent performances, workshops and conversations,

* Little Saigon Restaurant (Ho Thi Thanh Huong), The Kensington Building (Leo Cholakis), the Winnipeg Film Group, and Canadian Goodwill Industries Corp., for their generous support of contemporary live art,

* our funders: the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Downtown Festival Grant Program, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage,

* the hardworking and brilliant staff and members of aceartinc., Plug In ICA, Urban Shaman Gallery, and Video Pool Media Arts Centre,

* Graham Mockford, videographer and production assistant,

* Susan Chafe, programme designer

(in) visible cities... more photos from friday and saturday

2008-09-18T21:17:00.001-07:00

(in)visible cities - more photos from friday and saturday...

Photos by Scott Stephens

Nhan Duc Nguyen's Heyseeds at aceartinc.

Jessica Thompson's artist's talk and Freestyle Soundhack at Video Pool

Fastwurms' Unisex: House of Bangs and Blood + Swash at Plug In (with guests tattooist Katie Bethune-Leamen, and guest stylists Andrew Harwood and Sandee Moore.)

(in)visible cities BLOG DAY FOUR

2008-09-18T21:17:00.000-07:00

(in)visible cities BLOG DAY FOUR

Report by Jeanne Randolph

Photos by Scott Stephens

Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s performance was bestowed upon us Saturday night, September 13th. Blankets on the floor were the best seats in the house, and the house we saw was a translucent tent glowing as subtle as white moth wings.

Human eyes and ears can detect subtlety quite well, if given the opportunity. And this opportunity Cheryl generously embodied. The sounds in which we were immersed included her own singing; her shadow moved and danced and walked around, and when Cheryl herself moved and danced and walked around she was as gentle as a shadow.

And there was no false purity. A plastic toy or two, a red plastic drinking cup, a microphone punctuated the simplicity of the scene; Cheryl herself in a beige Ladies’ foundation garment, barefoot in her running shoes,

as dusk gives way to stars
as stars glisten
and dissolve
as squirrel’s tail twinkles,
then curls
she sang,
as a human, a forest
a gale offshore
a hooty owl
another and another,
moving foreign and familiar
mischievous, kind.......

The invisible blogger leaves the scene, grateful that so many people can perform so generously, delightfully, wisely with all the (in)visible cities crew; thanks.

Dempsey and Millan's Lift: photos by Scott Stephens

2008-09-14T17:43:00.000-07:00

See previous post for commentary on Lift by blogger Jeanne Randolph

(in) visible cities day three

2008-09-14T17:10:00.000-07:00

(in) visible CITIES DAY THREE

Report and photos by Jeanne Randolph

Heavens! the doors to the Kensington Building are heavy, but the invisible blogger is tougher than she looks. And she looked at JoJo Protectress of the Normal, smiling and dainty at the welcome desk in the foyer. JoJo welcomed me gently, as I am certain she welcomes normal people who have work within or meetings to attend in the building. Their ride in the elevator will need an introductory reassurance, and JoJo Protectress of the Normal will succeed at such.

Lorri Millan holds open the door to the performance LIFT. Lorri, as we have come to gleefully anticipate, is wearing an irresistible outfit, a scarlet elevator-operator uniform. It is so brightly crisp and innocent I restrain my tears. How jaunty is the red pillbox hat complementing her mischievous face!

Up all the way to the 18th floor and down I rode, leaning against the back wall basically staring at Shawna Dempsey as she recounted stories about various forms of falling, dropping, foolishness and remembrance.

When the LIFT would stop necessarily as beckoned to the 3rd or the 9th or any destination floor, the people waiting would instantly realize this was no ordinary elevator crowd. The baby waiting in the stroller began to wave, as his mom instinctively pulled the stroller in reverse. The puzzled guy in the pale plaid shirt shifted his shoulders. The elevator operator leaned her perky head out and encouraged them “Come in, there’s plenty of room.” The mom said she’d wait, as our crowd squeezed against the sides to accommodate the puzzled guy. He smiled self-consciously.

Shawna, in her power dress and sheer stockings, spoke softly, even though her outfit was not too dissimilar from Sarah Palin’s type, so intimidating that womanly curves do not connote kindness. Yet her uniform for success couldn’t cancel the effect of dreaminess as Shawna’s intonation rose and alighted recounting her tales.

After my exit from LIFT, I turned back as the elevator door glided shut. The numbered lights above the door eventually lit at floor 18, and then – and then not again. LIFT left possibly sideways to the space of imagination.

A document was taped to the Kensington foyer’s glass wall, Nhan’s print-out of a website about advertising in elevators, emphasizing the “captive audience.” The advertisers expect us captive audiences to succumb to the Stockholm Syndrome. I recommend that we all carry permanent black markers so that, before our symptoms paralyze us, no advertisement anywhere will be secure from ridicule. Choose whatever brand of marker you please, but don’t leave home without it.

Nhan’s Heyseeds shrine at aceartinc is built using books as bricks, the approach to which includes mirrors adorned with fake flowers hanging on one wall, and on the opposite wall, unpretentious, direct questions written in “mirror-writing” on sheets of paper on the opposite wall. The questions are frank and simple, but cannot be accessed without the mirrors; all this a re-enactment of the “hall of mirrors” that politicians and businesses construct with their weasel-words and press releases. The mirror I held revealed the question “Is it shameful to have the homeless in the city?” On the other side of the monumental book-edifice, there was a video document of a Viet-Namese ritual, beneath which the slips of coloured paper on which we visitors could leave our own handwritten notes.

Later that same evening the invisible blogger attended Jessica Thompson’s presentation about her soundhack projects all over the world.

Jessica’s presentation made my spleen curdle. In my opinion the way Jessica represented her work made the work appear to pander to childishness, suburban self-centredness, and exploitation of good natured people. The way Jessica’s work was presented gave the impression that her interaction with digital technology is smug and uninspired.

When an object, device or event lacks ambiguity, ethics and ambivalence the audience becomes, as the Black Power activists once cautioned, “A Chump.”

After fleeing soundhack I entered the Witches World all-encompassing installation at Plug-In ICA: FASTWÜRMS’ HOUSE of BANGS and BLOOD + SWASH. Read all about it all you will, if you don’t wander a.s.a.p. into this insanely ethical and brilliantly pullulating homage to ordinary work and surreal pastimes, your heart and mind may shrivel like cankerworms in a jar of polski ogorki. “I guess my hair is too short, too thin and too fine to mess with,” I said to Kim Kozzi, of FASTWÜRMS. Kim advised that shaving a patch in the shape of hammer and cycle would be a disaster. So, I sat with my arm held in the hands of Dai Skuse, of FASTWÜRMS, which, in this topsy-turvy den of everyday love and hex wonder, was not metaphorically so different from Dai Skuse being held in my arms – At BLOOD + SWASH skin is the medium of respect..... “How about a Woodlands’ style poison-blood-spitting-fanged-turtle-on-heroin tattoo?” I asked.

(in)visible cities BLOG DAY 2

2008-09-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

Nhan Duc Nguyen installs "Heyseeds" at Little Saigon restaurant.

(in)visible cities BLOG DAY 2

Friday 12 September 2008

Report by Jeanne Randolph, Photographs by Scott Stephens

The Little Saigon restaurant on William Street here in Winnipeg is, like the best of Winnipeg, unpretentious. As I walked toward the entrance, my first impression was that the restaurant was not open; it looked kinda dark in there and no one was sitting at the tables by the window.

And then, the tell-tale signal – the sound of laughter, clinking glass and music hovering above the murmur of mingled greetings and conversation.

I entered the aquamarine room and hugged my way through the crowd of friends and friendly faces. There were two prominent features of the environment, Nhan Duc Nguyen’s artworks on the walls and the chandeliers. The artworks were heartbreakingly subtle, gentle but in no way saccharine. No one except a true poet should be allowed to describe them. They deserve careful studious appreciation and afterwards more conversation. Well there was a third feature – I was so hungry my attention swerved toward a huge serving platter of sweet-fried chicken chunks mingled with red bell peppers in a glistening blood-scarlet sauce. I sat down with a plate of this yummy concoction on my lap and gobbled, using chopsticks and my ballpoint pen.

It’s preferable to enjoy alcoholic beverages while imbibing the intellectual delights of a panel discussion. The lighthearted brain fizz inspires convivial attention and unhinges the imagination. Tipsiness prevents audience passivity, because this event did not last beyond the equivalent of two ounces of hard liquour.

I have no intention of providing a synopsis of each artist’s presentation. I am committed to the idea that if you aren’t there it is better to have a conversation with someone who was. This position is in keeping with the modus operandi of each of the presenters, which included Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Nhan Duc Nguyen, the Dempsey/Millan duo, and FASTWÜRMS.

The ideas offered included:

“Empathy can create positive change;”

“Communal meals can enact how categories and boundaries are not the only reality;”

“An art practice that values labour, no matter how subtle that labour, can serve as a diplomatic exchange between all us hostages of Capitalism;”

“Experience can be shared without translation into English;”

“The performer-audience divide is unnecessary;”

“Art is NOT SOCIAL WORK;”

“Harming an institution or a system that objectifies people is not the same as harming people.”

“Artist-as-amateur can’t lord it over the audience.”

Or to interpret this event in my own shrill voice:

Maybe professionalism stinks.

Maybe teacherless learning is more effective.

Maybe competition is stupid.

Maybe creativity emerges equally from the audience and the artist;

Maybe creativity emerges from exchange just as floridly as from solitude;

Maybe we can keep ourselves vigilant down to the last nuance in pursuit of inclusivity.

Cheryl L'Hirondelle performance: CHANGE OF VENUE

2008-09-11T22:06:00.000-07:00

C H A N G E O F V E N U E
Cheryl L’Hirondelle
êkâya-pâhkaci (don’t freeze up)
Date and Times: Saturday, September 13, from 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm (performance installation in process), and live performance from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
NEW VENUE: Winnipeg Film Group Studio (Artspace Building, 304 - 100 Arthur Street, 3rd Floor)

Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s work, êkâya-pâhkaci [ee-guy-uh-puck-a-chee] (don’t freeze up), operates through an intersection of nomadic site-specificity, visual patterning, language, narrative, movement and rhythm. With êkâya-pâhkaci (don’t freeze up), Cheryl will stage a performance presented under an adaptable traveling tent where she will be relating useful information to passersby using her body, voice and graffiti/tagging. The audience, by proximity and in accepting her invitation to ‘come in from the cold’ becomes part of her ‘camp’. The public is welcome to visit the installation/tent and have tea and bannock during the afternoon, and Cheryl will present a live performance within the tent in the evening, starting at 7:00 pm.

(in) visible cities extends many thanks to the Winnipeg Film Group for their generous support of the festival.

Day 2: Performance and Activism in Everyday Life

2008-09-07T21:19:00.001-07:00

Photographs by Scott Stephens.

(in)visible cities invisible blogger report: Saturday, September 6, 2008

2008-09-07T20:35:00.000-07:00

Photo: Jeanne Randolph

I walked up Albert Street on my way to aceartinc, site of the first day of Performance and Activism in Everyday Life, led by Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan, a two-day workshop expanding ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism. As I entered the workshop room I was disappointed that Lorri Millan immediately recognized me. My disguise as Clark Kent was inadequate. Clark Kent didn’t wear cowboy boots.

The rooms where the performance acolytes were working were as quiet as a nunnery. Had the acolytes taken a vow of silence? “They are at the consideration, contemplation and systematic design phase,” Lorri advised, “Earlier they were moving.”

The most prominent sound was that of ballpoint pens on paper. The occasional creak of a chair. Footsteps, possibly from the floor above or another room.

Having remembered always the Fassbinder movie, Mother Kusters Goes to Heaven, I took the cap off the lens of a huge protruding Nikon camera I had borrowed for journalistic effect. My camera flashbulb would startle the acolytes as they sprawled unselfconsciously on green and red mats. Their concentration would be interrupted, their annoyed faces would shine full moon white in the artificial glare. Yes, the blogger’s calling is to ruin lives, just like in the movie.

Fluttering paper pinned to the wall distracted me, however. The invisible blogger devised another unethical move: to rob the acolytes of the pinned papers, which were likely documents of their aesthetic activist intentions, to be enacted in the streets tomorrow.

I simply walked to the wall and removed the two sheets of newsprint, careful lest their crinkling alert someone. Either I was marvelously adept or nobody cared. I left the room easily. In the downstairs foyer I unfolded the papers and eagerly read the secrets I had purloined:

CONCEPTUAL, LOCATION-BASED, SITE DRIVEN, EXPRESSIVE,
A LANGUAGE, INTERACTIVE, HISTORY, TIME-BASED, MOVEMENT,
BODY, PUBLIC, DISRUPTIVE, HUMOUROUS, UNCOMFORTABLE,EMPHEMERAL…

And to think I had once claimed that performance art is “Anything set in motion by someone who cares.” This group was looking closer, way closer.

Before I stepped onto McDermot Street again I looked back at a light switch at the door to aceartinc’s darkened stairway. Tomorrow the switch will be in the ON position.

- Jeanne Randolph, (in)visible cities Rapporteur/Blogger

(Photo, left: Jeanne Randolph)

Workshop photos by Scott Stephens:

Jeanne Randolph, Rapporteur/Blogger

2008-08-19T12:20:00.000-07:00

Jeanne Randolph: (in) visible cities’ Rapporteur/Blogger

Date and Time: Saturday, September 6 – Sunday September 14
Location: Various locations in the Exchange District and online at: invisiblecitiesperformance.blogspot.com

Cultural theorist Jeanne Randolph will act as (in) visible cities Rapporteur/Blogger, perambulating amongst the performance events and providing insightful commentary online as the festival unfolds.

Dr. Jeanne Randolph in performance at Banff in 2004. Photo by JoJo LaRue.

(in) visible cities Artists' Biographies

2008-08-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

Cheryl L'Hirondelle (aka Waynohtêw, Cheryl Koprek) is an Alberta born halfbreed (Métis/Cree-non status/treaty, French, German, Polish) artist and musician. Her creative practice is an investigation of the junction of a Cree worldview (nêhiyawin) in contemporary time and space. Since the early '80s, L'Hirondelle has created, performed and presented work in a variety of artistic disciplines, including: music, performance art, theatre, performance poetry, storytelling, installation and new media. In the early '90s, she began a parallel career as an arts consultant and programmer, cultural strategist/activist, and director/producer of both independent works and projects within national artist-run networks. L’Hirondelle’s various activities have also found her working in the Canadian independent music industry, as well as various educational institutions, the prison system, First Nations bands, tribal councils and Canadian governmental funding agencies.

L’Hirondelle’s work as an artist and musician has garnered her many awards, and has been written about in numerous journals and anthologies. She was one of the first Aboriginal artists from Canada to be invited to present work at DAK’ART Lab, as part of the 6th Edition of the Dakar Biennale for Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal. In both 2005 and 2006, L’Hirondelle was the recipient of the imagineNATIVE New Media Award for her online net.art projects. She received the 2006 Award for Best Female Traditional Cultural Roots Album and the 2007 Best Group Award from the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, for Fusion of Two Worlds, the first CD from her Aboriginal Women’s ensemble, M’Girl. For more about L’Hirondelle’s work, see: www.ndnnrkey.net, www.myspace.com/cheryllhirondelle, www.myspace.com/mgirlmusic

Jessica Thompson is a new media artist whose practice encompasses sound, performance and mobile technologies. Her projects enable audience members to create user-defined spaces and situations within urban environments. Her projects have been shown in exhibitions and festivals such as New Territories, (ARCO 2005, Madrid) MACO, (Mexico City) dp003, (Dundee, Scotland) ISEA 2006, (San Jose, CA) the 2006 Conflux Festival, (New York), Kunsthallen Brænderigården (Denmark) and InterAccess Artist Run Centre (Toronto). Her project, SOUNDBIKE, was curated into Art Projects at Art Basel Miami Beach by Canadian curator, Natalie Kovacs, in 2005 and recently she was one of five international artists invited to participate in Reinventing the Wheel, a residency held at *.artlabs in Sibiu, Romania. For more about Thompson’s work, see: www.jessicathompson.ca

Formed in 1979 by Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse, FASTWÜRMS is the trademark and joint authorship of these Toronto/Creemore-based multidisciplinary artists whose artwork melds high and popular cultures, bent identity politics, social exchange and a Witch positive DIY cinematic sensibility. FASTWÜRMS has exhibited and created public commissions and installations, performance, video and film projects, across Canada and in the United States, Europe, Korea, and Japan.

Recent exhibitions include ‘Anacowda-happy to feed the world’, for Rococo Tattoo at the Power Plant; ‘Superstition’ at Gallery TPW; ‘Red of Tooth and Kaw‘ at the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; ‘BLOOD & SWASH 3’ at Parlour Projects, Brooklyn, N.Y., and the 27th Bienal de São Paulo; and ‘Donky@Ninja@Witch’ at the Art Gallery of York University, North York, the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, and Plug In ICA, Winnipeg. They will be performing ‘Krummi Krunkar: Tarot + Tattoo’ in Reykjavik this October as part of the SEQUENCES Festival.

FASTWÜRMS’ cultural politics are complex and strategically subversive, their critical aesthetics relational and inclusive with a bent towards working class, craft collaborations, and queer alliance.

Jeanne Randolph is one of Canada’s foremost cultural theorists, having published the influential Psychoanalysis and Synchronized Swimming (1991), Symbolization and its Discontents (1997), and Why Stoics Box (2003). Her most recent book, Ethics of Luxury (2007) looks at how agencies of imagination can help us to act morally and ethically while participating in cultures of abundance, opulence and consumerism. A practicing psychiatrist, Randolph is also known as a performance artist whose extemporaneous soliloquies (on topics varying from cat curating to boxing to Barbie dolls to Wittgenstein) have been performed in galleries and universities across Canada as well as in England, Australia, and Spain. For Jeanne Randolph’s commentary on (in) visible cities, visit: http://invisiblecitiesperformance.blogspot.com

Nhan Duc Nguyen was born in Qui Nhon, Vietnam in 1967 and immigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1976. His paintings have been exhibited across Canada. The big painting, Temple of My Familiar, a 32 metre, irregularly shaped artwork was shown in Belfast, Ireland. In 1997 two thousand paper boats evolved to an installation entitled Joss Paper Boats at the Roundhouse in memory of those who died of HIV/AIDS. Recent projects include core sample from the mountain of fruits and flowers, an installation at Banff Centre during the Intra-nation Residency Program in 2004, and, heyseeds, an altar erected at the Glenbow Museum in 2005 for the Alberta Centennial. Nhan is currently archiving Chicken Bank Images, the work of the late Sally Peanut, aka Warren Knechtel. Other recent projects include “Dream of a Fisher’s Catamite”, a self-published zine based on Japanese wood block prints and Calling for Ba Ba… (Mrs. Ba), a series of altars installed in various pho (beef noodle) restaurants in San Jose as a part of ISEA2006 and ZeroOne San Jose. For more about Nhan’s work, see:
nhanducnguyen.ca, and www.onedge.tv/html/06_baba.html

Experimental, passionate, and irreverent, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are two of Canada’s best known performance artists. Collaborators since 1989, this Winnipeg-based duo were catapulted into the national spotlight in their 20s with the controversial, now world-renowned performance piece, We’re Talking Vulva. Since then, this acclaimed duo has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, their film and video works being screened in venues as far-ranging as women's centres in Sri Lanka to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. They have also created installations (Archaeology and You for the Royal Ontario Museum), published books (Lesbian National Parks & Services Field Guide to North America, Pedlar Press), and curated exhibitions (recently as Adjunct Curators at The Winnipeg Art Gallery). They have been acclaimed as “one of the high-points of contemporary Canadian artistic production.” (Border Crossings) For more about the work of Dempsey and Millan, see: http://www.fingerinthedyke.ca

Panel Discussion and Artist Talk

2008-08-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

(in) visible cities Panel Discussion
Tuesday, September 9 from 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Little Saigon Restaurant (333 William Avenue at Adelaide Street)

Join artists Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Nhan Duc Nguyen, Shawna Dempsey, Lorri Millan and FASTWÜRMS for a discussion around issues related to performance practice, identity, community, agency and place. There will be Vietnamese snacks and a cash bar available starting at 6:00 pm, and the panel will begin at 6:30 pm. Arrive early, as there is limited seating. This event also marks the opening of Nhan Duc Nguyen’s installation, Heyseeds, at Little Saigon.

Artist Talk: Jessica Thompson
Date and Time: Friday, September 12 from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Video Pool Media Arts Centre (300 - 100 Arthur Street)

Jessica Thompson writes, “I am interested in using elements of game-playing and performance to create collaborative situations with the audience where the integrity of the artwork is entirely determined by willing participants.” During this talk, she will discuss her recent work in relation to the politics of broadcast sound, (in particular the ways that we respond to representations of hip hop and boombox culture), the idea of art-as-object versus art-as-experience, how the distribution of new media art is changing the way that art is made, and how shared intellectual property is changing our understanding of artistic authorship.

Performance Schedule and Details

2008-08-19T10:46:00.000-07:00

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan
Lift
Date and Times: Friday, September 12
7:30 am - 9:00 am, 11:00 am -12:30 pm, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Location: Kensington Building (275 Portage Avenue at Smith Street)

Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan will present Lift, a series of performance interventions that will be situated in the smallest of spaces: elevators. Dempsey and Millan write, “Elevators are perhaps the last public space uncolonized by consumer culture. With almost no media to distract us, we are very aware (even if briefly) of ourselves, of the wait, of our agency put on hold. We retreat inward, breath-held, until required to re-emerge as the doors open at our floor.” Dempsey and Millan will combine pre-recorded audio with live performance on short (vertical) journeys with captive audiences. As they have done in many previous works, the artists will interact with audience members, whose stories and actions (their journeys) will radically impact and contribute to the performance. This come-and-go performance for a small space will elicit moments of surprise and human contact, to create intimacy within an anonymous space.

Research photo courtesy the artists. Photographer unknown.

Nhan Duc Nguyen
Heyseeds
Dates and Times: Installation at aceartinc. opens at 8:00 pm Friday, September 12 and continues until October 4. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm. Installation at Little Saigon will be available for viewing from September 9 to October 4 during regular restaurant hours.

Locations: aceartinc. (2nd Floor, 290 McDermot Avenue) and Little Saigon Restaurant (333 William Avenue at Adelaide Street)

Nhan Duc Nguyen’s Heyseeds focuses on the aesthetics, histories and politics of Northern Vietnamese animist traditions as they are being practiced in North America. For (in) visible cities he will be creating two distinct but interrelated shrine installations - one installed in a downtown Winnipeg Vietnamese restaurant, Little Saigon, and another in the Flux gallery of aceartinc. The restaurant shrine will include interviews with restaurant workers, as part of the record of the story of Vietnamese-Canadians (which Nhan has conducted and recorded in advance of the festival), played in conjunction with music used to call up the spirits. A second shrine, installed at aceartinc., has an interactive component which will enable viewers to write on sticky notes and other stationery, and include them for display as a part of the shrine.

At the opening reception (Friday, September 12 at 8:00 pm), incense and candles will be lit and foodstuffs will be offered as a necessary part of these shrines. The shrines refer to the story of the widow Ba Ba Bua*, the childhood ditty which mirrors her tale, and the examination of wars and of widows, fused with the rituals and leitmotifs of Northern Vietnamese animist traditions as practiced in a North American context. The installation will remain in the gallery for four weeks after the opening reception, continuing to accumulate notes from gallery visitors.

* Ba Ba Bua (The Widow Ba) is a woman who sold noodle soup at Bai Sau Beach in Qui Nhon, the town in Vietnam where Nguyen was born. Missing and presumed dead during the exodus by sea after the fall of South Vietnam, she has many shrines erected to her by the 1990s and this woman of great misfortune and of extraordinary resolve has became a patron spirit to many restaurant workers in North America.

Nhan Duc Nguyen, "Shrine to Literature: Redux” (2008) from the exhibition Everything is Not Lost curated by Kim Nguyen, Belkin Satellite Gallery, Vancouver. Photo by Randall Lee.

FASTWÜRMS

HOUSE of BANGS and BLOOD + SWASH
Dates and Times: Friday, September 12 from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm and Saturday, September 13 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Location: Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art (286 McDermot Avenue)

In conjunction with their exhibition DONKY@NINJA@WITCH at Plug In ICA (September 13 to November 8 - opening reception September 12 @ 8 pm), FASTWÜRMS will present  two performances for (in) visible cities:

HOUSE of BANGS features guest stylists Andrew Harwood and Sandee Moore. Bring out your head and they will clip, curl, and comb it, tease, toss, and tress it, muss with it, fluff, and frost, pat, part, perk, and preen it, conk and bob, brush, braid, and boff, bother, body, and bun, wave it, weave it, dred and shag, fro and buzz cut, leave it all alone, then hold it down, blow it, and bang it.

BLOOD + SWASH features guest tattooist Katie Bethune-Leamen. Freestyle temporary marker tattoos for skin and denim. This provisional tattoo parlor and multi-disciplinary performance event is free, and open to the public. No appointment or parental consent necessary.

Both HOUSE of BANGS and BLOOD + SWASH will be presented simultaneously in the main space of Plug In ICA.

FASTWÜRMS, DONKY@NINJA@WITCH, House of Bangs, installation view, Art Gallery of York University, North York, 2007. Photo by Phillip Monk.

Cheryl L’Hirondelle

êkâya-pâhkaci (don’t freeze up)
Date and Times: Saturday, September 13, from 12:00 noon – 5:00 pm (performance installation in process), and live performance from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Location: Winnipeg Film Group Studio (Artspace Building, 304 - 100 Arthur Street, 3rd Floor)

Cheryl L’Hirondelle’s work, êkâya-pâhkaci [ee-guy-uh-puck-a-chee] (don’t freeze up), operates through an intersection of nomadic site-specificity, visual patterning, language, narrative, movement and rhythm. With êkâya-pâhkaci (don’t freeze up), Cheryl will stage a performance presented under an adaptable traveling tent where she will be relating useful information to passersby using her body, voice and graffiti/tagging. The audience, by proximity and in accepting her invitation to ‘come in from the cold’ becomes part of her ‘camp’. The public is welcome to visit the installation/tent and have tea and bannock during the afternoon, and Cheryl will present a live performance within the tent in the evening, starting at 7:00 pm.

Cheryl L'Hirondelle, êkâya-pâhkaci (don’t freeze up). Photo by Merle Addison.

Jessica Thompson

Freestyle SoundHack
Date and Time: Saturday, September 13 from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Location: Video Pool Media Arts Centre (300 - 100 Arthur Street) and other Exchange District sites (tba – check videopool.blogspot.com for updates)

Jessica Thompson will present Freestyle SoundHack, a collaborative performance in the form of a workshop. The performance/workshop involves building Freestyle SoundKits - wearable sound pieces prototyped by the artist - that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through the urban environment. During the performance, the artist will give her project to the public by teaching workshop participants how to make their own Freestyle SoundKits, which they can distribute as they wish, using whatever sounds they choose.

The performance/workshop begins at Video Pool with a Freestyle SoundKits building session, followed by live sonic and movement-based interventions in the public spaces of the Exchange District. Thompson regards her transmission of open-source technological skill as the core component of the performance. She is interested in sharing technological knowledge so that the sonic transformation of public space becomes less of a specialized artistic activity and more of an ordinary occurrence.

The workshop/performance is open to any one 14 years and older. No previous electronics, hacking, coding or performance experience is needed – just a desire to experiment and play. Enrolment is limited to 10 participants and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The fee for the workshop is $40, which will cover the cost of workshop materials. Participants should bring their own snacks/lunch to the workshop.

This workshop is presented by Video Pool Media Arts Centre. To register or for more information contact Cam Woykin, Education Coordinator: tel: (204) 949-9134 x4 email: vped@videopool.org
blog: videopool.blogspot.com web: videopool.org

Jessica Thompson, Freestyle SoundKit Test Run (Brooklyn, 2006). Body-mounted sensors, sound module, speaker. Circuit design and technical assistance by Ranjit Bhatnagar. Photo by Ranjit Bhatnajar, courtesy of p|m Gallery, Toronto.

Sign up now for (in) visible cities' workshops!

2008-08-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

(in) visible cities will present two performance workshops:

Performance and Activism in Everyday Life, led by Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan is a two-day workshop expanding ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism.

Freestyle SoundHack, led by Jessica Thompson, is a one-day workshop/performance involving the creation of wearable sound pieces that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through urban environments.

* * see below for details and registration information * *

Performance and Activism

in Everyday Life 
Dates and Times: Saturday, September 6 and Sunday, September 7 from 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Location: aceartinc. (2nd Floor, 290 McDermot Avenue)

This two-day workshop will expand ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism. The workshop will be led by Cheryl l’Hirondelle (Vancouver), Lorri Millan (Winnipeg) and Shawna Dempsey (Winnipeg) -- a dynamic trio of experienced artists and educators who collectively have backgrounds in performance art, interventionist art, street theatre, community activism, lo-fi media tactics, decolonization strategies, net.art, installation art, costume design, writing, critical analysis, vocal technique and movement.

The workshop will focus on the development of performance-based interventionist strategies using voice, movement, space, objects, writing and costume. It will also include an examination, from a range of cultural perspectives, of interactive and collaborative relationships between performers, audiences and communities.

The workshop will include full group exercises and discussions, smaller group activities, movement and voice-based activities, presentations by the artists on related issues in their own work, and a field trip. It is aimed at emerging and experienced performing artists (e.g. performance art, music, theatre, dance). Participants should wear comfortable shoes and clothing, bring lunch, and a yoga mat or towel. The workshop is free, but space is limited to 12 participants: pre-registration is required, and is offered on a first-come, first-served basis.

This workshop is a joint presentation of aceartinc. and Urban Shaman Gallery. To register or for more information contact:

aceartinc. Tel: 204.944.9763 Email: program@aceart.org
Urban Shaman Gallery Tel: 204.942.2674 Email: program@urbanshaman.org

Freestyle SoundHack
Date and Time: Saturday, September 13 from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Location: Video Pool Media Arts Centre (300 - 100 Arthur Street) and other Exchange District sites (tba – check videopool.blogspot.com for updates)

Jessica Thompson will present Freestyle SoundHack, a collaborative performance in the form of a workshop. The performance/workshop involves building Freestyle SoundKits - wearable sound pieces prototyped by the artist - that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through the urban environment. During the performance, the artist will give her project to the public by teaching workshop participants how to make their own Freestyle SoundKits, which they can distribute as they wish, using whatever sounds they choose.

The performance/workshop begins at Video Pool with a Freestyle SoundKits building session, followed by live sonic and movement-based interventions in the public spaces of the Exchange District. Thompson regards her transmission of open-source technological skill as the core component of the performance. She is interested in sharing technological knowledge so that the sonic transformation of public space becomes less of a specialized artistic activity and more of an ordinary occurrence.

The workshop/performance is open to any one 14 years and older. No previous electronics, hacking, coding or performance experience is needed – just a desire to experiment and play. Enrolment is limited to 10 participants and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. The fee for the workshop is $40, which will cover the cost of workshop materials. Participants should bring their own snacks/lunch to the workshop.

This workshop is presented by Video Pool Media Arts Centre. To register or for more information contact Cam Woykin, Education Coordinator:

tel: (204) 949-9134 x4 email: vped@videopool.org
blog: videopool.blogspot.com web: videopool.org

The City Re-imagined, Re-invented!

2008-07-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

aceartinc., Urban Shaman Gallery, Video Pool Media Arts Centre, and Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art are thrilled to present (in) visible cities - a performance festival in Winnipeg's Exchange District from September 6 - 13, 2008.

Transforming, Shape-shifting Artists!

(in) visible cities will include live performances and performative events by an array of internationally-renowned artists including: Cheryl L’Hirondelle (Vancouver), Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Winnipeg), FASTWÜRMS (Creemore, ON), Jessica Thompson (Toronto), and Nhan Duc Nguyen (Vancouver). Cultural theorist Jeanne Randolph (Winnipeg) will act as (in) visible cities’ rapporteur/blogger, providing insightful commentary as festival events unfold at http://invisiblecitiesperformance.blogspot.com/

You! Work it! Mix it up!
To further engage audiences as both participants in and witnesses of the work, (in) visible cities will present two performance workshops:

Performance and Activism in Everyday Life, led by Cheryl L'Hirondelle, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan is a two-day workshop expanding ideas of performance art practice in relation to collaboration, community, and activism.

Freestyle SoundHack, led by Jessica Thompson, is a one-day workshop/performance involving the creation of wearable sound pieces that generate and broadcast electronic beats as users move through urban environments.

Meet the Artists! Exchange Ideas! Incite!
(in) visible cities will also include a round-table discussion with the artists on performance practice, identity, community, agency and place on Tuesday, September 9 at 6 pm at Little Saigon Restaurant. Jessica Thompson will present an artists talk at Video Pool on Friday, September 12 at 7 pm. And don’t miss the (in) visible cities opening celebration Friday, September 12 at 8 pm – simultaneously happening at aceartinc., Plug In ICA and Urban Shaman Gallery.

Morphing, Resonating Cities!
(in) visible cities is a brief but intense festival bringing together some of Canada’s most interesting and lively performance artists to engage with audiences in Winnipeg’s Exchange District. The city – our city – is a network of living cultures with heterogeneous but intersecting communities, systems, flows and struggles. Through presenting performance works that play out a variety of modes of social interaction with audiences, (in) visible cities aims to further animate the stories, histories and economies of the Exchange District.

You are invited to witness and participate in events that expand possibilities for performative agency while also speaking to the politics of place – of cultural visibility and invisibility, presence and absence, utopia and urban myth, renewal and resistance. Through (in) visible cities we offer new forms for imagining how urban dwelling, telling, exchange, site and history can be reinvented.

More info re: details on all event dates, times and locations coming soon to this blog.

For more information about (in) visible cities contact:
aceartinc. Tel: 204.944.9763 Email: program@aceart.org
Urban Shaman Gallery Tel: 204.942.2674 Email: program@urbanshaman.org

(in) visible cities gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council’s Downtown Festival Grant Program, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage. Generous in-kind support provided by Canadian Goodwill Industries Corporation, Little Saigon Restaurant, Kensington Building Ltd and the Winnipeg Film Group. Sincere thanks also to our donors, members and volunteers; and to our community, and friends and family.