The Living Vault Opening Reception

2022

The AGH is particularly excited about the second iteration of our exhibition series that brings new and vital voices to bear on our permanent collection.

The Living Vault brings together six multi-disciplinary artists from a range of performance-based fields in collaborative pairs to create new works inspired by works from the #AGHCollection. Through the lens of theatre, dance, music, video, story-telling, and poetry, the exhibition serves in part as a metaphor suggesting a fresh strategy to critically and creatively activate the gallery’s collections.

This event on June 23rd celebrated the launch of this project. We convened members from each of the teams to reflect upon and celebrate this creative journey, including documentation from behind the scenes.The AGH is particularly excited about the second iteration of our exhibition series that brings new and vital voices to bear on our permanent collection.
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Blooms

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The Sound of Silence

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Song 2 of 2

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Dead Light

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Blooms

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PIAS, [Merlin] Redeye Distribution (on behalf of Village Green); AMRA, and 2 music rights societies

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Autogenerated Transcript from YouTube (if available)

Use CTRL+F to find key words if it is a longer transcript​.

0:01

good evening everyone and welcome my name is alexandra brickman and i’m the lead of interpretation here at the art

0:07

gallery of hamilton i’m pleased to welcome you to the launch and celebration of a brand new exhibition

0:12

called the living vault of the collection and performance tonight we will chat with three artist pairs anna

0:18

chatterton and claren dean humphrey shyler seawell and michaela paxerock and shimona roy and larry mcnichols

0:25

each of these artists represents a range of performance-based fields and have been creating a performative response to

0:30

works in the agh collection i would like to start by acknowledging that we are here on the traditional

0:36

territories of the erie neutral huron-wendat hodneshone and mississaugas

0:41

this land is covered by the dish with one spoon wampum belt covenant which was an agreement between the haudenosaunee

0:46

and anishinaabe to share and care for the resources around the great lakes we further acknowledged that this land

0:53

is covered by the between the lakes purchase 1970 1792 sorry between the crown and the mississaugas of the credit

0:59

first nation we as an institution recognize that a land acknowledgement is only one tiny

1:05

step in the reconciliation process especially for colonial spaces such as galleries and museums

1:11

there is much work to be done to better represent the voices and stories of this land that we occupy as settlers

1:18

the agh collection of artworks represents a long history of colonial and eurocentric perspectives and as a

1:23

team we continue to question and challenge the purpose and future of our collection the living vault project has offered an

1:30

opportunity to bring diverse perspectives both socially and artistically to help us see and

1:35

challenge works from our collection in new ways so before i introduce each of our artists i would like to welcome my

1:42

colleague toby bruce who is our director of exhibitions and collections and toby will start us off by sharing a bit about

1:48

the origins of this exhibition and how the show has evolved over the past few months

1:53

[Applause] thanks alexandra welcome everyone um i have five minutes

1:59

we have a very very specific alexander has a very specific run of show which i was very impressed by as performers you

2:05

all know what that was we’ve never had a run of show i have five minutes to do the what how why and when of this

2:12

project so um last year in covid from

2:19

june until the end of the year we presented an exhibition called breaking the vault art and poetic no

2:25

art and poetic license no that’s wrong art and poetic liberty thank you

2:31

titles are the hardest things we do so we had this that we did this exhibition and it was nothing short of a

2:39

revelation for us we were working with the hamilton youth poets who then became the hamilton u

2:44

poets and we tore lukassic foss who’s standing at the back who’s our director of programs in education had developed a

2:50

long-standing relationship with that group of young creatives and we decided that we really wanted to

2:59

through our conversations with them and their creative practice try a bit of a pilot project which was

3:04

to bring them into our vaults which was really tricky to do during covid but we

3:09

managed to through a variety of crazy means bring everyone

3:15

in to have them look at the you know we have ten thousand objects in our collection

3:20

look at works find that work that sparked something in them to produce their own spoken word piece

3:29

it was a truly revelatory experience um the outcome the visceral response that

3:35

we had from the public so those of you who didn’t see it they they curated the show together there were nine of them

3:42

they made the selection of works together in the end based on their what works were sort of speaking to them and

3:48

then they wrote their spoken word pieces on the wall so their their physical presence was in the room with the

3:54

objects and it was a really unique experience on all levels

4:00

it was so great that we thought okay this is a model that we really want to continue this

4:06

idea of bringing artists creatives in conversation with other artists and

4:13

creatives the works from our collection we wanted to open out that curatorial process

4:19

and it really not only did it fundamentally shift something in me personally

4:24

those poets got me through covet they were an extraordinary group of human beings they are an extraordinary group

4:29

of human beings but it also shifted something fundamental institutionally

4:36

in terms of how in terms of having us think about how and why we do what we do how we operate

4:43

and how we think about our collection and who is speaking to those objects and

4:49

how are they speaking to those objects so after the success of

4:55

breaking the vault we thought okay this is a great model to continue working with other creative disciplines and at

5:01

the time torah was working really closely with karen and chetta kieran

5:06

anchetta and matt mc of porchlight and matt mcphagen of industry on the garden

5:12

project and so that became that sort of evolved into being then you know it made sense

5:18

that we were going to work with this group that we had a relationship with as we had with the youth poets

5:23

and we would start brainstorming what this next project could be with

5:28

performance-based artists so together with carly billings and rose hopkins who are here who will be introduced in a

5:34

moment as producers for the project we proposed this and then said you know

5:40

you go away and think about how you you know this your community how do you think this can work so they

5:46

came back to us with a really interesting and really challenging proposition which was if you think about going into a vault

5:52

that has hundreds of objects in it you’re going to see a little clip of of all of these amazing performance-based

5:58

artists doing that it’s difficult enough to choose to choose one work that speaks to you in

6:04

order to then create in the case of the poets a spoken word piece they put the challenge forward of pairs

6:12

so two performance-based artists who didn’t even know each other having to go in

6:18

make a selection so agree on on something that would sort of dually inspire them and then agree on how they

6:25

were going to create a brand new work from that experience

6:31

and i tell you it was also a we actually put i’d say to all of you i said this all to all of you before but we put you

6:37

almost in a in an unfair position because the creative process and

6:43

i know there are many artists in the in the room it’s not something you can define and

6:48

say inspiration hits you and you can kind of go it’s a very organic thing

6:54

so it was a very short runway and what became really clear

7:00

was that we were sort of putting the teams in an unfair situation where we had a deadline with an exhibition

7:05

opening and this goes back to what i was saying about rethinking institutional ways of

7:11

doing business so what’s really exciting about this project is it’s a work in progress

7:17

so we’re opening it we’re celebrating the opening tonight of this exhibition which is

7:22

i don’t know if any of you had a chance to see it when you came down the corridor it’s in the room just to your right when you’re leaving here just to

7:28

your left the works that that the teams chose are installed

7:34

um and there’s a video outlining where each team is sort of in the process

7:40

right now some teams are further ahead than others and that’s what we’re going to talk about tonight we’re going to sort of see

7:47

how that process of collaboration is working and so the exhibition is

7:52

unfolding over time which is fantastic because it means when you come back at the end of maybe in

7:59

a month or so another project will be more fully formed and that it that information and

8:04

and rather footage of that will be in the exhibition space okay so it’s it’s

8:10

unlike normally the show opens it’s all done and that’s not the case in this because

8:16

we’re dealing with the creative process in real time so it’s really really exciting for us

8:23

i’m standing here representing the gallery but i do want to it really these projects really take a village i know

8:30

that’s a cliche but um in the programming team alexandra tore denise

8:35

in collections christine because people came back the artist came back multiple

8:40

times to you know they’re looking at images they want to see things so our collections manager our

8:46

exhibition coordinator beau greg impala our preparators you know there’s a lot sort of happening

8:51

with all the teams we want to make sure we can create an environment um where they feel comfortable and that

8:58

we can facilitate their creative processes our marketing communications team megan is here

9:03

lyanna and lisa and last but not least tyler teach she’s at the back in the

9:08

wave tyler who is actually he’s our media producer see and they’re all clapping for tyler

9:14

because tyler is the one who you’re going to see all of his video footage and he is the one who is working with

9:19

each of the teams to take that performance and put it into a digital form so that it can live in the

9:25

exhibition space so he is also an artist in his own right and so he brings that

9:30

artistic vision um and all of the artists have really really loved working with him so thank you tyler so with that

9:36

um i leave you in the great hands of our moderators i think alexander is going to introduce everyone now

9:43

bear in mind because i think it’s only fair they are artists

9:48

not public speakers everyone gets nervous public speaking but let’s all nod because we’re all here

9:54

to support them right clap okay clap we’re here to support them keep saying

9:59

just pretend you’re in your living room having a conversation no one’s here to to you know everyone’s really excited to

10:06

hear what you have to say so on behalf of the agh thank you all so much it has been such a wonderful experience from

10:13

our perspective and i can’t wait to hear what you all have to say thanks

10:21

thank you toby so it is now my pleasure to introduce our artists and producers who will make up

10:26

our q a panel for tonight so starting with mikola and maybe give a wave when i get to you so mikola paskarak is a queer

10:34

designer and performer whose practices range from movement to singing mask making to set and sound design they are

10:40

interested in the tactile and visceral elements of immersive theater while honoring their holistic values mikola

10:46

has an upcoming show at the hamilton fringe called storky and nana read the horoscopes

10:54

[Applause] shyler seawall unfortunately couldn’t join us tonight but we have recorded her

11:00

answering some questions about her experience with this project so you will see her up on screen shyler is an

11:06

anishinaabe storyteller and author from garden river first nation she’s a community organizer dedicated to

11:11

cultivating spaces for urban indigenous youth to exist freely and without an abundance of joy shyler is working on a

11:18

novel that will move alongside indigenous black and racialized young people as they pursue the liberation of

11:23

their communities shimona roy is a dancer and educator with extensive training in many

11:29

different styles of indian dance and experience with modern ballet flamenco and many other dance styles she’s toured

11:35

extensively across north america and also teaches at mcmaster university’s center for dance and at her own studio

11:41

shakti fine arts

11:48

shimona’s collaborator larry mcnichols also unfortunately couldn’t make it tonight but leary is a multidisciplinary

11:53

artist practicing dance movement spoken word music and sound design and you will see him up on screen as well

12:00

anna chatterton who will be joining us a little bit later is a libertas playwright and performer a two-time

12:06

finalist for the governor general’s literary award for drama and her plays have been produced at the shaw festival

12:12

tarragon theater nightwood theater buddies and bad times the theater center and theatre pass moray just to name a

12:18

few clarendine humphrey is a black trans non-binary artist tarot reader movement

12:24

instructor and videographer they have developing training in trauma-informed movement practices and anti-oppressive

12:30

frameworks and are deepening their education in decolonized yoga and justice work in 2020 clarendean released a lo-fi ep

12:38

entitled moving in the dark their various practices continue to examine the visual and audio language of

12:43

queerness chronic pain isolation intimacy and togetherness

12:53

we are also joined by rose hopkins and carly billings who have been instrumental in bringing this exhibition

12:58

to life rose is a theater maker and producer she has been a member of theatre aquarius’s junction program for theater creators

13:06

women’s work playwriting circle theater ontario’s professional theater training program for directing and has received

13:12

the city of hamilton arts award for emerging theater artists she currently serves as the producer for hamilton-based companies open heart arts

13:20

theater and industry performance makers carly anna billings is a queer fat femme

13:26

second generation italian canadian and ojibwe producer actor singer theater maker podcaster and storyteller from

13:33

hamilton which is the traditional land of her people the mississaugas of the credit she owes everything she has to

13:38

the first peoples of this land acknowledged and unacknowledged recorded and unrecorded carly is proud and

13:45

thankful to be creating roots with arts organizations like porch light theater which with which she is currently

13:50

engaged as a producer and rose and carly will be moderating tonight’s discussion for us

13:55

so

14:01

so just before we jump into the q a with everyone we would like to share a short clip um giving you a behind-the-scenes

14:06

peek into the process of exploring the vaults with all of our artists thank you

14:15

[Music]

14:21

um

14:45

before 1900 however

15:00

i’m just touring you so i don’t know who was in someone was interested in mark bell [Music]

15:09

okay so this is part of a dip here so it’s actually this is the on the

15:15

other so we’ve got it on both sides very cool

15:32

[Music]

15:40

[Music]

15:45

it wasn’t someone sounds like that they’re holding things in there what are they holding some of them

16:02

[Music]

16:07

[Applause] so there’s one other mic there if people want to grab it as they see fit

16:15

don’t have to totally up to you also carly get on in there i’ll grab it i’ll be the first well first of all thank you

16:22

thank you so much everyone for being here today and to help us kind of celebrate the launch of this exhibition

16:29

and to engage with us a little more about the process of these artists and what that’s looked like

16:35

it’s been such a pleasure for me to get to see how these artists have been working and

16:40

the different routes they’ve chosen to kind of engage with different pieces of work and

16:45

so just super excited to share it with you i wonder if anyone has any initial

16:51

thoughts about seeing that behind the scenes footage does it give you any kind of initial

16:57

reactions or takes you back to any kind of feeling you first felt when walking through the vault

17:05

anybody sure and this is on as well yeah um

17:10

just going through the vault initially there is so much and there are so many

17:15

bright and colorful things and so many things to look at it was really overwhelming and just watching that i am now

17:22

like reminded of how quiet we all seemed which is a very interesting comparison

17:28

to make between us and the art and hopefully giving more voice to some of that art as well throughout this or

17:34

by the end of this project

17:40

i was really struck by like how we were all holding our hands like maybe in front of our bodies like this or in

17:45

pockets and stuff i know for me when we first went in there was kind of this sense of like

17:51

preciousness about the art which i often think which i think is like normal and maybe how i often feel when i come into

17:58

art galleries so it’s been really cool to see how

18:03

our relationships with our pieces have changed we maybe have come become a little more familiar with them

18:09

which i hope that you’ll get to see as we screen some of the pieces as well

18:14

uh yeah i also wonder it’s been so interesting for me to see

18:20

the different ways you’ve chosen to engage or choose the pieces you have

18:28

i know we’ll speak to each of you individually but did anyone have any kind of like things they were looking for when they

18:33

first went into the vault

18:40

i was more waiting for the feeling and it didn’t happen the first day and i’m like oh man

18:47

um and then and then and i saw a piece we’re like oh okay that’s the one so i

18:52

was waiting for the chills in the vault um yeah

18:58

i think for leary and myself i think we were overwhelmed with so many pieces

19:03

of art and we went through a phase of we thought we chose the ones

19:09

that we wanted but that’s not what we ended up with so we went through multiple pieces

19:16

through the process within a few weeks and then we finally chose our pieces at the end but

19:22

we began in one spot and then we ended up in another spot that was totally different so we went from really really

19:28

colorful to um very neutral colors so to speak

19:37

and carly i wonder as my lovely co-producer has anything really stood out to you during this process um what

19:44

has been one of the major highlights that you’ve experienced while working with these artists

19:49

yeah well it’s such a gift to work with so many incredibly talented multi-disciplinary artists it’s really

19:55

been interesting to see the roots that we maybe hoped you would take um but the roots that you did take

20:01

which were even better than we could have dreamed uh i also it’s been really rewarding to see the relationships that

20:06

you’ve been building and to be constantly surprised in the best ways

20:12

one of the other things that stood out to me when we first went into the vault was previous to going into the vault we all

20:18

took a look online at the online catalog and so kind of as some of these artists have hinted at they had some ideas of

20:25

what they were looking for and then saw them and they were like that’s great but actually it’s this thing over here

20:30

that’s really moving to me and there’s so much in there like

20:36

there’s like did you see those racks they’re full on full on like i was me i

20:42

was like my libra brain could not choose so i am grateful that i did not

20:49

have to do the choosing because it was just overwhelming in the most wonderful way and i also think it’s

20:55

very interesting which i’m sure we’ll touch on in a bit that each pairing chose a piece uh of sculpture

21:03

and of installation and not just you know a cool painting on a wall which is also amazing but those

21:10

are the things that struck me the most throughout the process just the wow of it all

21:17

totally speaking of sculpture

21:22

the first kind of piece of work we’re going to take a look at is the piece that mccola and shiloh were working on

21:28

um called spirits on lockdown and we’re going to hear from shiloh in a moment

21:34

who has some very insightful things to say about her response to this work but i also wonder mikola if just before we

21:40

take a look at that you want to give us a little rundown of what your processes mean like and some of the themes that

21:45

you’re exploring while responding to these pieces

21:51

for sure when shyler and i first started talking and talking about this as a project

21:58

um shyler’s first or first coming into the vault noticed the soapstone carvings and

22:05

had heard about them as well and and was talking with her mom about them and she her mom was basically

22:12

surprised that the agh still had them she was like really i’m

22:17

i’m a bit just it just came as a bit of a surprise

22:25

and we got to talking about kind of how they were held and they they’re mostly kept in the vault on

22:31

shelves in the dark for the most part when they’re not being put on display um

22:38

and we got into this conversation of life cycles of art

22:44

similarly like as people we have life cycles and art is an extension of people and what

22:50

they do and their expression and so why wouldn’t we treat art in a similar sort of way

22:56

um so we is is this sounding all right too like

23:02

people can hear me cool thank you um so yeah we we just got to be or got to

23:09

talking about like what would the art ask if it had a voice

23:14

and then we went into that in terms of like building a story um

23:21

well yeah you um ty can we see shiloh can we see shiloh awesome

23:36

walking through the vault was kind of like overwhelming um like there’s just like a lot of art and i like a lot of um

23:44

slots which feels a little um weird i guess compare because like

23:49

usually in the gallery like they’re all on walls and like you can like see them but um

23:55

yeah so it’s overwhelming um but also like kind of cool it feels like a

24:00

an exclusive experience to be able to come in here so that um yeah that kind of like duality has been

24:07

interesting

24:12

um i went on an exchange trip up to pangor tong nanobot um and then they came down the kids from

24:20

hangar town came down here and we got to see those pieces for the first time i was like oh wow like this is cool um but

24:27

also i think when i was like 15 16 i also like wasn’t um

24:33

yeah as aware of like the like what it meant for for those pieces for these pieces to be

24:39

in um a space like the art gallery of hamilton which is like a colonial institution etc etc um

24:47

but since then um i’ve learned like a lot more and um i think for me i just like want

24:54

to like i um i think like as an artist as well like i think a lot about like how

25:01

like um what or what my art means to me um

25:07

and how i imagine like i guess this art also um

25:12

meant to the the people who created it um way back when

25:18

um and i just know like i wouldn’t for myself i wouldn’t want my art to be

25:23

stuck in a space like this fault and although like i i do believe like yeah it’s probably very well taken care of

25:30

and um like it has all of the all of the care and it’s like meant to

25:37

um like stay alive for a very long time i do think that there is also like um

25:44

a point where art like um just like just as much as like art lives it also like dies

25:51

um and like that’s something that my cola and i talk about and or a concept that we explore in our piece

26:02

i think i want the audience to like think about and like consider for themselves what

26:09

like we think what art means to them and like what it means to them to

26:15

like go into a gallery and see art on a wall but not be able to interact with it aside from like

26:21

um just looking at it and like i want the audience to also think about like

26:29

um yeah like as much as like like as much as like we might want art to be

26:34

preserved forever i think too like like my people um

26:40

are my people our art was like um a lot of it like was through storytelling and like passing on those

26:46

stories verbally um so i don’t necessarily believe that like we need a physical

26:53

thing in order to remember something by um so i think yeah just like wanting the

26:59

audience to like think about those things and like maybe art doesn’t have to be like preserved forever um on a

27:05

wall or like in in a cold place like like the vault

27:10

thank you shyler really appreciate those words carly do you have a question

27:16

i do have a question um a further question for mccola let’s do it

27:21

um i well it’s like a two-parter bicola so take it in um i was just wondering how was your

27:27

creative process and through that creative process did you face any challenges

27:33

and if so what were they challenges

27:39

um i don’t know if i would call anything a challenge specifically we came into this project coming from

27:46

two different artistic backgrounds shyler being largely a poet and a writer and myself being more of a designer and

27:51

a performer so trying to to figure out how we worked together was

27:57

really interesting um

28:02

we sorry what was the first part of your question yeah you’re speaking to it already how was the process and then what were the

28:09

challenges so yeah you’ve already you’re already doing it um

28:15

yeah i guess we were thinking a lot about like what kind of story we wanted to tell and how we could tell that story

28:21

um and when shyler when tyler said that she was like really

28:26

interested in telling a story about these pieces which there is also one more there is a piece that is not part

28:33

of the shadow collection but is also a soap soapstone carving and it’s of a

28:39

drum dancer turning into a bear it’s very lovely and shiloh was really interested about

28:45

like getting their voices maybe exploring their perspectives

28:50

um and what if they came to life and that would be really interesting and thought and considered at one point

28:57

like we could do almost like a stop animation thing oh but that takes a lot of time and like a lot of resources to

29:04

make happen and so it got me thinking like how can i

29:09

support that in a design sense so i started looking into shadow puppetry

29:16

and thinking that maybe there are ways that we could bring like shadow play into

29:23

being in the same frame as those soapstone carvings and illustrating kind of

29:29

um their voices being animated as they’re speaking so that’s kind of the route that we’ve

29:35

chosen so far and there will be a couple different instances of that as they travel throughout

29:40

the gallery first starting in the vault then coming through the halls and coming outside eventually

29:50

oh hey i think tyler wants to show us a video yeah let’s take a let’s take a look at

29:55

their work in progress

30:01

[Music]

30:14

so [Music]

30:34

[Music]

31:01

amazing right i myself in a million years would never have thought to animate such

31:07

beautiful art in that way so thank you both for this peek into into your process

31:13

and into your work thank you amazing all right the next person we’re going to

31:19

chat with is shimona the one and only i wonder if you would like to start off

31:26

by taking a look at the piece that you created [Music]

31:39

hello [Music]

31:45

come to darkness with you again

31:50

because a vision softly creeping

31:56

lifted scenes while i was sleeping

32:02

and the vision that was landed

32:08

in my brain still remains

32:15

within the sound of silence

32:22

in restless dreams i walked alone [Music]

32:40

i turned my [Music]

32:54

that split the night and touch the sound

33:02

of silence [Music] and in the naked light i saw

33:10

[Music]

33:19

without speaking people hearing without

33:26

listening people writing songs

33:31

that voices never share [Music]

33:44

from silence [Music] fools and i you do not know

33:54

silence like a cancer grows

33:59

hear my words

34:05

[Music]

34:13

like silent raindrops

34:19

[Music]

34:24

[Music] and the table balance

34:40

[Music]

34:45

and the words

34:59

[Music]

35:12

[Music] our silence

35:19

[Music]

35:37

amazing

35:44

oh my gosh and so that is kind of a one-shot look at your

35:50

piece but not quite the final you’re in an editing phase correct yeah so um tyler was amazing at

35:58

um so that was just the one take for today but we’re in the editing process right now so he took

36:04

a bunch of shots in different angles and different movements and we actually

36:10

have another um little bit of um an editing thing where we’re at harborfront uh sorry pure4park

36:18

and we did an outside view of this piece also so we’re trying to meld those

36:24

together because we were inspired by not just um the agh itself but also um what

36:31

we’re inspired in nature and outside so yeah amazing i can’t wait to see the final

36:37

product always so exciting and you actually chose two pieces of

36:42

work to respond to that beautiful large sculpture yeah so this yeah so the sculpture is um

36:51

richard prince um so we actually found that by accident we saw

36:56

one bit of it so we saw one sphere and we were like what is this um and

37:02

toby was there that day and then she’s like oh there’s lots of pieces so we went actually around the vault and found

37:09

all the different pieces in different spots because it was in storage and so it was kind of like finding a puzzle

37:15

um so we were very curious about that piece uh for sure and um

37:22

we just i think that we just it was shiny that was one thing that we liked about

37:27

it um but we were just it was just we couldn’t figure out how big it was so

37:33

the funny story with that is tor um you know we were chatting and then he was like oh you know what we’ll do like this

37:39

outline of it and um out of cardboard and so you can like see how big the

37:44

piece is because we wanted to interact with the piece and um so

37:50

when we came um because this was a couple of weeks ago so we you know we were kind of choreographing based on the

37:56

pictures because it was such a large piece and um we come and he’s like wait until you see

38:03

this and we’re like okay so it was like this long piece and it was like way

38:09

bigger than we imagined in our minds and i’m like okay obviously we’re off with spatial awareness in looking at a

38:15

picture um my math brain and um so you know that was happening

38:21

and then um the agh was so fantastic like so thankful to toby and uh tor

38:28

that they had a surprise for us probably about a week later and said wait until we have this space that you

38:35

can rehearse in and we were like okay and we went upstairs and they actually had the sculpture out so we could

38:41

actually choreograph interact and actually complete our piece with the sculpture

38:47

which was it totally was a game changer for us because the creative process for being

38:54

something that was one-dimensional to being able to interact with the piece just changes the

39:00

whole entire uh process um it inspired us to do different things um

39:07

it inspired us to interact in different ways different lines different movements um and it was just fantastic that we

39:14

were able to practice and rehearse um sometimes during agh off hours so out um

39:21

out of the regular public kind of hours and sometimes it was actually with when the

39:27

public was there um that in itself was a very interesting experience to have the public view and

39:34

watch you when you are you know choreographing you’re you’re talking out parts you’re

39:40

you know they got to be a part of the process and um one girl that came uh and she was just

39:47

watching us and and the number one thing that she said is it’s so

39:52

amazing to see the artwork presented in a different manner where people are interacting with

40:00

it and you’re talking about a process you’re talking about you know movement and it just brings it to life in a

40:06

different way so i think that was the most uh adventurous part that i like really

40:12

really appreciated for sure that’s so cool because i feel like that’s kind of the essence of this whole

40:17

exhibit the living vault is to bring the pieces of work to life in a way which is awesome so your piece

40:24

is called carmen line yes carmen line yes and i looked this up today and i was like juicy can you tell us a little bit

40:32

about what that means and also why why you chose that title for this piece right so both pieces so this is the gold

40:38

steam piece sorry i didn’t want to ignore that um so both pieces and this is the orry so it’s

40:45

about space basically um and we were so surprised that we

40:50

chose the two pieces and how they related to each other and so the carmen line is basically that

40:58

place um the atmosphere line where it goes from blue sky to black sky right

41:03

so it’s that whole oxygen i’m not going to go into the scientific things right now but um but we thought it was like that

41:10

in between place and we felt that we were kind of in that in between place right

41:16

so a lot of our inspiration between the pieces yes it was about space like infinity about possibilities of the

41:23

unknown even with our process being the unknown because

41:29

you know when you’re two dancers it’s very difficult to build a relationship very quickly to be able to

41:35

be comfortable with each other to choreograph and have a dance form and

41:41

the intimate relationship is um yeah it’s just really hard to have where

41:47

you’re comfortable with each other in each other’s movements especially when you come from two different styles right

41:52

so leary’s background is he’s um ballet modern dance i’m an indian classical dancer

42:00

and you know i’ve done other forms but mostly indian classical dancer and both

42:05

of us have been solo artists for the long like the longest bit for the last at least four or five years so to be

42:12

able to interact with another person as a dance partner and or as a dancer is like

42:17

you know we’ve been through the pandemic we’ve been through a lot of isolation so i think for us coming together and i

42:24

think that’s what these pieces represent that it was the unknown of coming together and then

42:31

we were we were just really drawn to it because it was just

42:36

anything’s possible and i think it’s that bringing to life that isolation piece to have have that interaction

42:43

piece together so yeah amazing carly do you have a final question for

42:48

shimona

42:53

just a bit of choreo um i have one i have a couple questions

42:58

um one just because i’m curious um and then some that i’m supposed to say so

43:04

uh one shimona why sound of silence and why that like where did that come from

43:09

yeah i think that’s important with dance you know talk about what they’re dancing to yeah well we thought it just went

43:15

with the two pieces right so it’s the carmen line’s a part of that right so when you go it past the karman line it’s

43:22

silence right you don’t hear anything um so that kind of went with our sound of science but i think it was also our

43:28

feeling of um breaking the silence trying to come together um trying to create trying to have a

43:34

voice um both of us are racialized people right um leary is uh black and i i’m

43:41

racialized so i think we’ve kind of overcome a lot of um

43:46

ups and downs in our lives a lot of oppression um overcoming impression overcoming just

43:54

to be able to reach our goals um and i think that was a a big part of why

44:00

um we picked silent because we felt like that was a good song

44:06

that describe what we’re going through what we’ve been through our past present hopefully not our future

44:14

but um yeah so it just really spoke to us and it was the passion like you know we this

44:20

is a simon garfunkel song right but we didn’t pick that version we picked this version because we felt like

44:25

the intense passion and the intensity of the song really spoke to how we wanted to interact with each other

44:32

um so yeah again bo thank you very much for and tyler thank you for very much

44:37

for um getting the rights to use that song um because that was a process too so uh i really appreciate that yeah

44:43

thanks shimona yeah i think it i think that really comes through in your piece rose and i were lucky enough to be there the day that you filmed and i like

44:50

and and and and toby as well and it was overwhelmingly clear and wonderful and

44:57

amazing so i can’t wait to see the final product um you touched a little bit about your pro on your process and how

45:04

how it is to work in a duo as a dancer when you know that’s not your normal practice um if you can maybe speak a

45:10

little to that and the challenges that come with it yeah so i guess um again the relationship building just the trust

45:17

right so when you’re um so you know when leary lifted me that would be trust

45:23

um of having that and just understanding each other and how we move also melding two different styles of dancing um you

45:30

know i think if we had more time with with the creative process you’d probably see more partner dancing more um because

45:37

if you notice that we’re kind of separating we come together to separate out um we

45:42

think that if we spent more time together we might have done connected a little bit more together

45:48

um but one thing that came out of this is we both actually so part of this is two pieces of poetry so he wrote a piece

45:55

of poetry i wrote a piece of poetry that’s another part of this that we’ve put movement to also

46:02

um that so i think it kind of spiraled into a different inspiration for us that besides having the dance we actually

46:09

went delved into poetry delved into um something that’s a little bit different because we were more and more

46:15

inspired so again as time goes by um i think the creative process and the

46:20

juices kind of um move into that play and um i guess one thing that was interesting

46:27

with this whole entire process with agh is you know using the space at the agh where in

46:34

non-traditional ways um so i’m glad that we were able to start that process of using it where it

46:41

was more inter interactive for inter interdisciplinary or multi-disciplinary artists to be able to not just use the

46:48

gallery as an art gallery to view but also to use it as a space to create

46:54

which i know they’ve started doing with certain artists but as dancers it was very very cool and um i think that that

47:00

was a process of learning for both the agh and us um the security guards were amazing because like a lot

47:06

of times we were here after hours and things like that and you know just really inviting i think we built that open

47:15

open space where you feel that you’re a part of the agh like that that relationship started

47:22

building which i think is really important for artists of racialized black indigenous

47:29

so we have a space that we can use our voice in so i hope this process will start that to continue and continue

47:36

yeah so thank you shimona as a fellow ipoc artist i just i’m so grateful for

47:41

all the the time the effort the the pushing the boundaries the resetting new boundaries the exciting

47:47

new um way of working here at the agh and i’m sure the institution is also grateful for that as toby had mentioned

47:54

earlier which is absolutely amazing also thank you for putting the living in living vault sorry i couldn’t resist it

48:00

was right there sorry you did it yay how’s everyone doing

48:07

okay yes love that love that for you um

48:13

love it for us we just had our final artist join us and i wonder if

48:19

we want to give her like a minute or two to like settle in so why don’t we take a three minute

48:26

bio break grab some cookies some water stand up and stretch your legs if you

48:32

have to go to the bathroom this is a great time for that yes great resume programming in like five minutes

48:38

yeah everyone please welcome to the stage and a chatterton woo

48:46

we read your bio when you weren’t here it was awesome

48:51

everyone clapped we loved it yeah also they read our bios and that was uncomfortable

48:58

so i’m glad you’re here now yeah so now you’re caught up great okay great so

49:03

i’ll be serious though claire clarendon and anna have been

49:09

working on a piece that is called something

49:16

it has a name for sure it’s in response to donning the code of nature which was that piece you

49:21

were just seeing and we’ll just take a little peek at some of their behind the scenes footage now

51:30

awesome yay

51:38

yeah oh oh wow i would love to give me one second no

51:44

i’m excited too overwhelmed and excited much is how i’ve been feeling today to be here which is

51:49

amazing so

51:55

great here we go so you two had a very exciting opportunity that some of the other

52:01

artist pairs didn’t and you met with marguerite the artist who created donning the code of nature

52:08

um from which you have been taking some inspiration which we saw which we love

52:14

um what was that like what was it like to meet the artist and how did that how has that informed your process so far

52:20

and yeah tell us all about it

52:30

it was amazing we didn’t know what to expect um we had read about her but there wasn’t

52:37

tons on the internet uh we watched what we looked at a lot of her pieces

52:43

um and then she was just very real she was just a really real grounded um

52:50

sort of one of those purely creative artists uh not driven by ambition driven by her creativity and what’s compelling

52:57

her in the moment and so i think we were just really inspired by that and claire and i were writing

53:03

a million notes um yeah so it was just really nice to meet

53:08

somebody she spoke about making temporary pieces of art which i thought was really neat you know she’s made

53:14

pieces with earth bodies in the earth and then she just then it’s over just temporary so that

53:21

was really also really inspiring that it doesn’t need to be you know although we’re living the vault what is

53:28

um if those would not be in the vault it was just it was just very inspiring

53:34

and of course she’s also a senior artist so sometimes it’s just really neat to meet older artists and

53:40

elders and um hear what their trajectory has been like you know she’s very humble

53:46

she doesn’t um she’s not rich and famous you know but she’s also a custodian uh that’s

53:52

what she called it that’s what she said right yeah a custodian um of a house that she lives in and she’s

54:00

taught a lot like grade two grade three you know not just like university

54:05

um so it was just i think you know we didn’t know what to expect do you want to talk about what you wrote down in

54:11

your notes um i have a lot of notes messy notes but

54:17

i think for me it was like she’s alive yeah because going into the vault a lot

54:23

of these artists are not alive right so the living vault

54:29

and i think that stuck out to me about what she was saying was

54:35

going out to nature is a skill set it’s a skill that you need to cultivate over time and i found that interesting

54:42

considering we’ve been in the pandemic in lots of isolation

54:48

that was what i remember from my notes and then this

54:53

what was this called the code of the actual piece the

55:00

coat itself that was my because it looks like style and fashion

55:05

in the forest and i was really into that and then i was interested in

55:11

we were interested in like what was this a duration piece like how long did she walk for and um

55:19

yeah several months so like as we were making the piece to um

55:27

i think i was feeling a little bit frustrated like i can’t get any ideals but when she

55:33

when we spoke to her it’s a skill set you cultivate it over time like over time right

55:39

right over time um so yeah and apparently the

55:46

i keep saying contraption in my head the codes code contraption what is this contract

55:52

um it’s as wide as a mousse and she talked about it um

55:57

how do i explain moving through the forest and how that shifts perception and it’s like every time we go into nature we’re shifting

56:04

perception again and it’s like how do we pull you into nature to shift perception

56:10

of who you’re relating to and your relationship to nature

56:15

wow that’s so exciting so it sounds to me based on my knowledge of your piece together and also hearing

56:22

now what you spoke about with the artist i’m wondering how time and nature are playing a part in your

56:29

process if maybe you want to walk us through what your process has been like so far and if there’s been any

56:34

challenges as well challenges has been riding my bike

56:40

[Laughter] like this hurts so much

56:46

um easier to do with someone um

56:51

i think the other challenge is like not forcing the process it’s like this needs to get out now you know the capitalism

56:58

of capitalism the rhythm of capitalism is very like

57:04

and art making is not like that it’s very flowy and around and maybe and don’t and

57:11

yes and um [Music] yeah so we just like let’s get out into nature let’s go

57:18

we’re riding down to albion falls i’m doing this oh my god um

57:24

and it’s been nice to hang out with anna and we’ve been talking a lot about

57:30

relationships and i notice that’s that that popped up a few times today human relationships how do we relate how

57:37

do we connect after a very intense collective trauma and now coming

57:42

into collective awkwardness and like how do we talk to each other i don’t know how do we human and so kind of figuring

57:49

that out in that process i don’t know

57:55

yeah i think um you know it was awkward our first couple of meetings we didn’t meet just the two of us we were with

58:02

everybody and the staff here and we were going into the vaults and

58:08

sort of this feeling of like oh god we’ve got to find that piece that’s going to give us goosebumps and we just weren’t finding it

58:13

and i started to feel like oh well claire can choose they they’ll find it and i’ll just be like

58:18

yeah because a lot of things were just kind of leaving us just neutral maybe would be the best way

58:26

to describe it um and then what happened was along the theme of we’ve been talking about i got

58:32

coveted as everybody does and um and so we couldn’t meet we were

58:38

supposed to meet the two of us and so actually in a way it was an advantage because i said let’s just connect

58:44

um because we didn’t know each other at all you know and um and so

58:50

right away i think i just said like how do you feel when you’re in the art gallery you know and um and we talked

58:57

for two hours and it was great and we found a lot in common and you know we’re both kind of chatter chatterboxes i

59:03

would say actually and so we were just kept chatting and chatting and giggling but also talking

59:09

about you know the art that we’re drawn to and we’re both talked about how we’re drawn to

59:16

installation and performance art um and it was because of that discussion

59:22

that then we asked the art gallery um that the next time we had planned another vault visit is there any

59:29

installation pieces or performance art pieces even though that would be obviously hard to find and so that was how we found our piece

59:36

was um they found some pieces for us and the first thing i think they showed us in

59:42

another room in another room was marguerite larman’s uh donning the code

59:47

of nature and we both saw it and we both got goosebumps and um which was so great because that’s

59:53

what i wanted to have happen but i started to be like oh it’s just not gonna happen and i think we talked about how we both

59:59

got goosebumps as i think we put you put in the text yeah was this permission of

1:00:05

like wait a minute we’re allowed to make art in the forest like wait a minute that’s allowed you know

1:00:11

and because we both love being in nature and during the pandemic nature has really saved us you know all of us both

1:00:18

of us separately and so it’s just been such a pleasure to just go and quote unquote

1:00:24

work in nature you know and also exercise and bike and walk

1:00:29

and be in water which i know is really important to you and your background and

1:00:35

so that’s just been a lovely you know it’s just been kind of delightful to be honest it’s like are we

1:00:40

allowed to have this much fun [Laughter] and yeah and the sort of the realization

1:00:46

so i guess we’ve gone out has it been four or five times something like that um

1:00:52

and sort of this realization of like yeah like like claire said we don’t want to rush it and also um

1:00:58

because it wasn’t instantly coming to us we just sort of instinctually are responding to

1:01:04

where we are and we’re both movers um uh and so we’re just sort of

1:01:12

instinctually moving and mirroring each other um and and then as time goes on we’ve been

1:01:20

talking about like oh like we both sing like shyly claire may be doing more than

1:01:27

i’ve been doing but maybe shyly you know inspired by is it michelle

1:01:32

clark whose piece is here you know loved their piece so sort of inspired by that

1:01:39

that’s one of the conversations we’ve had as we’ve biked to albion falls of like maybe we layer

1:01:46

voice you know over video because i should give kudos to claire who did all of the documentation

1:01:53

um and putting it together and and you know deciding on how it’s going to look

1:02:01

i basically just showed up and uh i had the map and where we were

1:02:07

gonna go got us lost um and then also as time went on that’s the

1:02:14

thing that’s been so great about it is just sort of been like getting inspired each time we go and in between the time

1:02:20

that we go and texting each other and being like oh now i think i’m starting to see dialogue because i’m a playwright

1:02:26

um because at first i said to rose like do you think it’s okay i think i’m expected to write because that’s what i mainly do but i am a performer you think

1:02:32

it’s okay if i don’t write because i’m really sick of writing but now i’m like wait a minute i think i do want to write and maybe we’ll

1:02:38

write and we’ve both talked about seeing text on the video you know so we’re having these ideas but

1:02:44

they’re slow and organic and so we’ve i think we just want to respect that and i think you know past um

1:02:51

the the um the product or whatever of this um

1:02:56

project you know we hope to continue and you know we’ve been saying like we want to do this for a year just go out in

1:03:02

nature you know maybe weekly if we can you know for a year through

1:03:07

fall winter maybe i didn’t run that by then you know um

1:03:13

yeah summer we’re doing the summer for sure um yeah so it’s just been a very slow

1:03:20

unexpected delight may i

1:03:27

thanks yeah clap for that no i do think it’s like so nice that the process has

1:03:32

been joyous for you and you’ve been leaning into that because i know in my experience sometimes i’m like

1:03:38

trying to create things i’m like oh my god what’s happening i hate myself i hate when i’m making this is the worst so i’m

1:03:44

just glad so yeah thank you for showing us another way of working a better way of working a

1:03:50

more compassionate and joyful way of working reminding us that that’s a possibility so it’s such a gift and you

1:03:56

should be having this much fun so you’re allowed to if you need permission i i can’t give it but i’ll give it

1:04:01

so yeah i do think it’s very interesting and i’ll open this kind of question up to

1:04:07

the whole group but each of you has without any kind of like prompting from us

1:04:13

pursued this really interesting perspective of like bringing the art outside or bringing your practice

1:04:18

outside for example i know with shadow and mccullough’s piece you physically bring the pieces outside you’re working

1:04:24

outside you folks filmed outside and i don’t want to like

1:04:31

i put words in your mouth but i wonder if um any of you can think of why

1:04:38

that might have happened like do you think that there’s something going on that maybe led you all to the to pursue

1:04:44

this kind of similar theme i have a microphone for whoever has an answer first

1:04:54

covid isolation that’s what i think um

1:05:01

which gave us a lot of reflection time but i think or we know that humans need each other

1:05:07

and need that interaction and cultivating the skill going out in

1:05:13

nature cultivating the skill of interacting with other humans who are different from you where you have

1:05:19

um you know come from different backgrounds different privileges

1:05:31

i lost my train of thought but i feel like kovid

1:05:36

and it is called the living vault and it’s like where you know you’re in isolation and you forget

1:05:44

um how to live with others and it’s like oh there’s another person here all the time

1:05:49

now so kind of like figuring out boundaries and

1:06:00

i guess like when i’m what i’m thinking about through all the pieces and the connection is like how do we create connection or temporary intimacy with

1:06:07

each other what does space mean to another are we stepping over their boundaries when is it too much when do i need a

1:06:14

rest and kind of just you know figuring out

1:06:21

the balance with in each person which will shift from day to day day to day from like

1:06:26

introversion to extroversion when do i need a break because it’s a lot after being isolated for so long like after

1:06:33

this i’m gonna sleep so hard but

1:06:39

i think i think through this process i realized like i love people and i want them to experience art and i want them

1:06:44

to experience nature and how do i invite them into that and

1:06:49

uh yeah has anyone else had like where did that

1:06:55

kind of instinct stem from for you shimon or yuma cola

1:07:03

i think it taking the art outside felt like a natural progression in the story

1:07:09

um we were trying to think about like different ways to treat art considering like it all of its history and our

1:07:15

relation to it as well like it’s it’s inuit art and neither of us are in oak

1:07:22

so how do we treat it in a way that feels more respectful from where we’re coming from as well and maybe

1:07:29

approaches it in a different like decolonized sort of way

1:07:34

so taking it outside letting the art breathe or at least get to feel the the heat of the sun was like a different

1:07:41

experience than you might get inside of a vault where it’s a bit more sterile feeling

1:07:46

it’s gorgeous like being inside the vault is great but thinking about like

1:07:52

what the art must must feel like is a different experience entirely yeah

1:07:58

thank you um i think for leary and i uh the reason

1:08:04

we wanted to videotape outside was we’ve spent a lot of time outside in the last few years like because we couldn’t go

1:08:10

anywhere but you could go to a park or you could be outside and i think we we wanted to also

1:08:16

make the connection of that whole idea of space the unknown whatever is going to something tangible that we know on

1:08:22

earth and making connections with nature is what we feel comfortable with and so

1:08:28

for us um because we couldn’t take your pieces out because they were too big

1:08:34

we wanted to we tried we asked we asked toby we’re like toby can we nope they’re too big it’s like

1:08:41

okay so uh we actually found um at the park there

1:08:47

was something that kind of um looked similar so there’s this huge rock

1:08:52

with a chain on it and i had remembered that piece was there at um

1:08:58

the harbor front park and and i think we were just i was thinking about the rocks and then i was like oh

1:09:04

there’s such a good parallel there with the grass and like it just kind of takes it from that sterile environment to

1:09:11

something where you’re interacting with nature so i think that was the peril i was thinking of um that’s why we kind of

1:09:18

went out and i think yeah we we just felt that we needed to bring some life

1:09:25

beyond uh what we were doing like we were bringing to life but it was like the next step

1:09:30

and yeah and then i think also the poetry that we wrote kind of inspired us to be outside

1:09:35

for sure amazing yeah and i think i’m

1:09:40

could never could not have asked for you all to do that but it’s such a beautiful through line because i really do think

1:09:47

it yeah supports kind of this idea of disrupting what the walls of a place like dark gallery might be or especially

1:09:53

the vault and kind of uh yeah bringing things to light in a different way

1:09:59

i wonder at this moment if anyone from the audience might have a

1:10:05

question for one of our artists no pressure but if there’s something

1:10:10

you’re curious about now be the time to ask

1:10:18

the very back row i’m going to run a mic down to you

1:10:27

sorry terrible habit um so at the back we noticed that

1:10:33

you mentioned at the beginning that you’re attracted to color in the vaults but then all of you pick neutral pieces

1:10:40

um with very little color and we’re wondering i’m wondering if you guys discussed that as a group or

1:10:47

found that interesting or if that was something that you all realized you’d done

1:11:04

yeah no we didn’t plan that i i think actually that’s so funny because

1:11:09

i i know mikola was like attracted to some pieces that we were attracted to at the beginning

1:11:15

and then with the um the circus yeah we’re actually fighting over the circus

1:11:20

but anyways um and then we just all drifted away from all those colorful pieces so no we did it all independently

1:11:27

as groups yeah

1:11:34

i’m really not sure like there’s a part of me that’s like we are the color um uh

1:11:41

um but i think for us it was like the permission to get out in nature

1:11:47

and the color and it’s green out there so

1:11:53

it’s green i don’t know what else i’m saying i think it’s really cool now

1:11:59

voice from the audience but now is the first time we’ve kind of

1:12:04

seen now that the pieces are installed in that gallery it’s the first time we have seen those pieces um beside each

1:12:10

other and interacting with each other and speaking with each other so some of those themes about like they’re all kind

1:12:15

of the same color and they have a certain vibe they’re all sculptures are kind of beautiful new discoveries that we’re having right now and i think i

1:12:23

hope that there’s more of those moments along the way as each of your pieces kind of become

1:12:28

more completed and are displayed next to each other yeah i saw hanover here

1:12:39

yeah i noticed that um you you did all pick sculptures um

1:12:45

one way shape or form as performance artists do you think that that was kind of

1:12:51

the natural thing to do because you’re working in three-dimensional space as performers quite often

1:12:58

i know a lot of you are writers as well but yeah and then when you are thinking

1:13:04

about doing the performances and you’re actually documenting them

1:13:10

um if you’re only documenting them from one perspective like the the way

1:13:15

the things that we got to see you only got to have that aspect of it that it would be

1:13:22

very interesting to see it in three-dimensional space so that we’re in the room with you or in the forest with

1:13:29

you or that your audience is actually live and there so that everything is

1:13:34

more multi-dimensional although obviously you can film that way as well

1:13:45

um i think like first we just saw the photo that you guys saw um and then we’re told that there was

1:13:51

this coat uh made of willows um

1:13:56

and so then we got taken to another secret room behind the michelle clarkson

1:14:02

uh installation and then um at first we just looked at

1:14:08

it and then we got to the next time we got after we met the artist we got to try it on

1:14:13

i was really tempted to take it out of nature but i knew better than to ask it sounds like i was right

1:14:20

i almost asked marguerite i felt like she’s so cool she might have but but that was a really neat experience

1:14:27

yeah i think maybe it’s that feeling of wanting the visceral experience rather

1:14:32

than just the gaze because we knew that we’re making we’re going to be making works of art having

1:14:39

no idea what those works of art are going to be and so maybe being attracted to the 3d

1:14:45

experience yeah and the space between it

1:14:52

what was your you had a second question oh i like that idea of um well that’d be

1:14:57

really i was like we could talk to the hamilton conservation area and get people to come see us and different

1:15:04

i was there but yeah that would be neat to have in 3d uh have audiences

1:15:12

you know it’s funny i feel like we barely did have people happen upon us we were

1:15:17

um i think yeah i think it was because it wasn’t quite summer yet in our first visits

1:15:24

and um maybe we went and kind of cloistered spots or maybe somebody walked by at

1:15:30

some point but we were a bit further away so actually it’s kind of felt like the nature belonged to us like

1:15:36

the forests and the oh no that’s not true what am i saying our first time when we went to tiffany falls

1:15:42

there was a couple that were getting married and they the photographer asked if they were like standing in the water on

1:15:49

the log or something and the photographer was like do you mind if we they you know it was early in the morning and they had tried to come there

1:15:55

yeah so we we waited while they took their wedding shots

1:16:01

and then we took over tiffany falls

1:16:07

well i think for us it was just um we were interacting with um because sometimes we have would have rehearsals

1:16:14

during a creative time with people walking by and watching and stopping and some of them talk to us some of them

1:16:20

were just oh we’re so sorry we’re interrupting it’s like no no no no you can you know stand and watch and talk to

1:16:26

us and ask so a lot of them are asking questions and about um you know what we were doing and you

1:16:33

know um agh had a nice little sign for us so people could read it and then ask us questions but um

1:16:40

i think for us we wanted to work with a piece that was going to be interactive and not

1:16:45

um just be a piece that’s just there that to inspire us we actually wanted to work with the piece and then even the

1:16:52

goldstein piece that we had in the background there was a connection between the two which uh christine

1:16:58

um like we told her what we wanted and we were trying to find so she gave some examples to us so christine was

1:17:03

fantastic and um when we saw the piece we’re like oh wow this goes with this because it just came with the theme and it just

1:17:10

kind of told the story if we could have had something on the ceiling we would have been even more excited like stars

1:17:15

on the ceiling or something like you know like then it would have been one two three yeah so uh

1:17:24

yeah sure thank you there was a latter part

1:17:31

of that question that was uh about like how to translate live performance into something that would be captured on

1:17:37

video something along those lines cool um

1:17:44

yeah i guess in trying to think about how to do that um shyler really wanted to go more

1:17:51

more along the lines of like just being responsible for writing something

1:17:56

and then also performing in it because it was a character that she would embody um and we’re trying to think of like

1:18:02

how how do we make this visual and also slightly immersive in the same sorts of ways so we situated our narrative in the

1:18:10

agh itself and we will actually be going through it

1:18:17

and trying to think about different ways in which we can use the theatrical devices

1:18:23

in like more site-specific way so that when it is captured like you you can

1:18:28

kind of follow along if you walk that path through the agh itself

1:18:41

um so hearing you folks speak about coming together being partnered as

1:18:47

strangers and um like the slow play of collaborating and

1:18:53

creating um trust with each other i’m interested in that piece like i’m interested in the

1:18:59

relational process between each pair and how you folks have been setting up

1:19:05

the conditions for safety and then trust and then creative process because creative

1:19:12

process is so vulnerable and meeting a stranger is so vulnerable

1:19:17

so i’m interested in the skills that you’ve been building to be courageously vulnerable with each

1:19:23

other

1:19:33

i could start okay yeah that’s a great question

1:19:38

um i think i thought about it a lot um because i’m just very aware of our different privileges and different life

1:19:46

experiences um and also you know being a white artist being a

1:19:51

theater artist being really comfortable um being close to people because i’m an actor

1:19:57

um and being very comfortable like looking in people’s eyes you know and so

1:20:03

claire and i talked about that about you know because we claire talks a lot about like um how their work is about in

1:20:12

intimacy and space um which really has infiltrated into the

1:20:17

work and so um so that really started to inspire me

1:20:23

just with like what is the space between us and what is like i think i said one day

1:20:29

um you know after claire had captured like documented and we got to watch it and i

1:20:35

suddenly was like as a theater artist i was like okay there’s two bodies you know there’s two people there’s two

1:20:40

characters what’s going on between them um there’s two bodies in nature

1:20:46

what is what’s their relationship to each other i mean these are just like typical play questions that you ask when you’re

1:20:52

writing a play and thinking about characters and so i spoke about that and then i asked like you know can we

1:20:59

look at each other you know um and you know laid you know emphasize that i know that

1:21:06

i’m comfortable with that like i went to you know an arts high school we had to stare at each other for an hour like you

1:21:12

know i’ve been through the ropes and that so it’s like a really different experience for me so we we talked about that about our different comfort levels

1:21:18

and and how that has fluctuated or changed as we keep working together and

1:21:24

um sort of setting up like what do you feel comfortable with in terms of how close i

1:21:30

come or how far or how do we feel when we’re separate um you know what we went

1:21:36

to um poorest falls and like you know stood across a bridge from each other and then

1:21:41

came closer you know we’ve been on logs together as we’ve mentioned or you saw you know so

1:21:48

um yeah i don’t know if you want to talk yes what’s

1:21:55

like when you offend someone what’s the pathway to restoring that

1:22:00

relationship um so it’s been interesting and being that i’m in in a black trans non-binary body

1:22:07

it’s very hard for me to connect with people because i’m like oh my god i’m being perceived this way

1:22:13

and there hasn’t been a lot of space for me to

1:22:18

kind of reflect and be myself and that really it’s weird to say that i bloomed during

1:22:24

the covet thing but i got to know myself in a way that i’m like okay this is what i need this is what i kind of expect in

1:22:30

relating with others and if they’re not about it

1:22:36

there’s 8 billion people in the world so um yeah so that that’s been interesting

1:22:43

and scary still vulnerable still uncomfortable and also very

1:22:48

enriching and i so believe that earth is about the relationships we have with each other not always getting outside of

1:22:54

ourselves like it’s over there and it’s like we’re right here and um that’s what i’ve been interested in

1:23:00

and i feel like going out in nature has also mirrored that and it’s like come

1:23:05

here and i’ve noticed the other i’m babbling now but i noticed that um like in the

1:23:11

city hamilton’s different people say hi to you but um when you go out to nature people get

1:23:18

their bodies breathing so they’re smiling they’re saying hello um

1:23:23

and so i’ve been interested in that

1:23:29

thank you did anyone else want to respond to that question

1:23:36

uh we’ve had a lot of like really what have felt like very honest conversations just before we start

1:23:43

working um schadler is very new to like performance and theater and i think that

1:23:49

was where i was coming from initially and then this is something kind of different it’s still in trying to bring

1:23:55

both aspects of our art into what we’re doing um so trying to start off with checking in

1:24:02

and making sure that we’re both comfortable with doing that sort of thing or we agree to to do the work that

1:24:07

we’re doing um and then also like having some time in our workshopping and our rehearsing

1:24:12

to do things that help situate shyler especially like

1:24:18

um in a place where she’s thinking more about performing because that that was one of the things

1:24:24

that she would have to do um so just thinking about that and like

1:24:30

helping construct that in a way that helps her visualize and so she doesn’t have to think about that she can just

1:24:35

kind of like stew with it as we’re like walking around the space in one of the agh galleries

1:24:41

um i’m just giving her prompts and stuff like that um yeah and i feel like having sometimes

1:24:49

what feel like hard conversations too because this is ultimately i think

1:24:55

there’s a lot of political nuance in the art that we’ve chosen and the fact that we’re talking about it as well and the

1:25:02

the gallery itself has been really transparent with us so far which is like i’ve appreciated a lot

1:25:09

um and i know that there are difficult conversations to have but they do feel like important ones

1:25:16

thank you um i think for leary and i just um

1:25:23

as i think i mentioned before as dancers um partnering up um there’s a lot of time where like you

1:25:30

need to have trust with each other just in those movements being together

1:25:35

um just the comfort level of interacting with each other we did spend a lot of

1:25:41

time after like after we would work here at the agh just you know having a drink

1:25:47

afterwards and just talking about the process and talking about what worked what didn’t

1:25:53

um we got to know each other as in like what our backgrounds are because i think our experiences from um before really

1:26:01

kind of um kind of when we’re talking to each other it

1:26:07

guides the work in a certain way so you know what each other is thinking and also i think

1:26:14

past experiences when you were working with a different partner or working with a different

1:26:20

dance um like whether it be a company whether it be a solo artist like just experiences

1:26:26

that you’ve had so like for example you know with indian classical dancing i have been in the worst places where i’ve

1:26:33

danced on the floor in my bare feet stamping the floor um and you know larry on the other hand

1:26:40

would be um you know in you know sprung floors perfect you know

1:26:45

conditions because he toured with the ballet company right um so we talk about those different

1:26:51

experiences about what his needs are what my needs are or what i you know what i’m used to or what i have

1:26:57

endured or he’s endured and i think that was a really important

1:27:03

aspect of understanding each other um also just what are we comfortable with

1:27:08

we had open conversations about what like okay you know we worked up to that lift that you saw in that part because

1:27:15

it would just be on the floor we just walked do walk throughs walk through his walkthroughs and then we came to the

1:27:21

part where you know just lifting me off the ground just to see how that feels and then again doing that movement um

1:27:29

and you know some days he was feeling it some days i wasn’t feeling it vice versa so it’s that conversation too hey you

1:27:35

know what i’m really tired from work today you know let’s just do walkthroughs and talk about process and talk about things

1:27:41

so i think those open dialogue conversations um were helpful for sure but i think the most important thing was

1:27:48

having those side conversations where we would just debrief and talk to each other and talk about like he would talk

1:27:54

about trinidad i would talk about my trips to india and you know things like that that um you know he’s done

1:28:00

traveling around the world so have i so just connecting at different levels that’s not about the dance

1:28:06

like connecting with each other at different levels of different aspects of our life i think that was important yeah

1:28:13

thank you thank you so much for that i feel like our time is kind of like winding down which is great and so i

1:28:19

just want to say thank you so much for to to to the four of you and also

1:28:26

curly just for your presence and energy and open hearts and vulnerability today

1:28:31

and also throughout the process and the same goes for leary and shiloh who aren’t here today just immense gratitude

1:28:38

um yeah for your work in this and i’m so excited to see how things

1:28:44

continue to develop and what that looks like so for everyone who hasn’t been able to take a peek in

1:28:49

the gallery that’s like just to the left when you exit this room the works that the artists chose are installed in there

1:28:56

and as their pieces become completed and filmed and documented they’ll also be installed in that space

1:29:03

super super exciting before we go carly and i also just want to let you

1:29:09

know about a little something that’s coming up for porchlight in industry i’m going to give

1:29:14

this to carly now hi um i just want to talk really quickly about

1:29:20

a little something called the garden project which is a really exciting project that we were lucky enough last

1:29:27

year to um present a portion of it here at the agh which is kind of you know the

1:29:33

seed for where all of this grew from garden didn’t get it um

1:29:39

where this wonderful living vault came from and uh having been one of the artists last year

1:29:44

who received this um invaluable gift it is an incredible

1:29:50

initiative i’m going to read it verbatim from the back here so produced by porch light theater

1:29:57

and industry together the garden project is an annual initiative to provide funding and

1:30:02

mentorship to local ipoc artists so local racialized artists so if you live

1:30:08

in the greater hamilton area or know someone who does if you identify as indigenous black or as a person of color

1:30:14

and you create live performance in any discipline any discipline at all it can be any any one of the many disciplines

1:30:21

that these artists work in or any of the ones that they don’t you should apply for this

1:30:26

and uh it’s an incredible initiative that will give you some seed money to

1:30:32

take something that’s just a little nugget of an idea and bring it to um the next stage of where it needs to go

1:30:39

and it will also provide you with an incredible mentorship as well and uh

1:30:45

so applications are open that’s what i’m trying to get at applications heck yeah are open they’re open until july 11th so

1:30:52

please please please apply tell your friends and uh if you’re looking if you’re a business or a person with many

1:30:58

monies and are looking to sponsor something this is also a cool thing to sponsor so um rose and i have a bunch of

1:31:05

these cards there’s some on the back tables uh you can feel free to scan this beautiful qr code we’ve managed to put

1:31:10

here and uh thanks for indulging us in this quick little uh plug but it’s it’s such a cool thing and we’re so grateful

1:31:16

again to be working with the agh once again for this year for the 2022 iteration of this project and

1:31:22

we love it and we’re grateful that we can do cool things together hooray

1:31:28

so yeah

1:31:35

thank you so much everyone i just want to say one last thank you on behalf of the art gallery of hamilton to all of our amazing panelists rose carly mccola

1:31:42

claire anna shimona and of course shyler and leery who couldn’t be here tonight thank you again everyone for

1:31:49

coming out i hope you enjoyed this event and again um please do return to the gallery to see

1:31:55

later this year to see some of the final pieces installed along with the original art pieces as well i hope you have a

1:32:00

great rest of your night thank you so much

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