Field Trip: Performative Artist Talk with Laura Gildner

2021

Victoria based artist Laura Gildner offers insight into her practice and the ways she is adapting her work to the new conditions that are playing out in the landscape of social distancing.

“Since the lockdown began, I have been grappling with the potential consequences a long-term lack of human interaction might have on my wellbeing as well as on my work. My practice, for the most part, involves casting or collaborating with large groups of people to create participatory experiences in response to my research. This desire for connection will be the jumping off point for my field trip- part artist talk and part performance, I’ll be looking at how art that is rooted in human contact might be reimagined in the age of physical distancing.”

Most recently Gildner has exhibited at the Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver (February/March 2020). She was the winner of the 2020 Lind Prize in Photography, Film, and Video Art and her work Informer was a selected exhibition for this year’s Capture Photography Festival (Vancouver).

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is located on the traditional territories of the Lekwungen peoples, today known as the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations. We extend our appreciation for the opportunity to live and learn on this territory.

Field Trip: Art Across Canada
We are pleased to partner with a new digital arts initiative, FIELD TRIP: ART ACROSS CANADA. This new online platform delivers arts experiences with some of Canada’s most celebrated artists in a national partnership with leading arts organizationsVictoria based artist Laura Gildner offers insight into her practice and the ways she is adapting her work to the new conditions that are playing out in the landscape of social distancing.
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Autogenerated Transcript from YouTube (if available)

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0:34

hello my friends my name is laura

0:37

gildner i am a visual artist

0:40

currently residing on the unseated

0:42

territories of the lewandan peoples

0:45

also known as victoria british columbia

0:49

and

0:50

this is me making out with one of my

0:53

favorite songs i thought we might

0:56

might as well start with talk with a

0:58

little pizzazz

0:59

this is kind of where i’m at right now

1:00

in week 11 of the lockdown

1:03

i live alone i know at least some of you

1:05

can relate so here we go we’re going to

1:07

start this with a performance of some

1:10

physical sound manipulation

1:12

and i’m going to come back and talk to

1:14

you about my work

1:17

[Music]

1:34

me

1:36

[Applause]

1:38

[Music]

1:42

[Applause]

2:02

time

2:06

[Music]

2:23

so my practice is very much rooted in

2:26

the performative and

2:28

while sometimes i’m the one performing

2:31

like i am here

2:33

more often than not i’m creating a sort

2:35

of situational design where participants

2:38

in my works

2:40

either perform for the camera with the

2:42

intention of the work becoming a video

2:45

or a video installation or photographic

2:48

series

2:49

or they perform as part of a live event

2:52

that is meant to exist as a specific

2:54

experience unto itself

2:59

what we’re looking at now is

3:02

documentation of one of my first

3:04

participatory live works

3:07

which was a makeshift parade i

3:09

orchestrated in 2017.

3:13

at the time i was playing a lot with

3:15

ideas surrounding the construction of

3:17

the idol in western culture

3:19

thinking about how we ritualize and

3:21

sensationalize our chosen subjects of

3:24

admiration

3:25

through overt and often exaggerated

3:27

performative actions

3:30

i decided i wanted to treat this project

3:32

as a bit of an experiment

3:34

i put out an open call for participants

3:36

so i didn’t know exactly who or how many

3:40

people might show up

3:42

and i chose an arbitrary subject as the

3:44

supposed focus of the parade

3:49

this ended up becoming phil collins

3:52

not the visual artist but the musician

3:55

someone who nobody seemed to have any

3:57

extreme feelings about one way or

3:58

another in 2017 but who had a bit of a

4:02

neutral and nostalgic appeal

4:05

that also communicated some of the humor

4:06

i was looking to touch on in the work

4:10

one thing i’ve been asked multiple times

4:13

since this happened was

4:14

was it his birthday or a significant

4:16

date or something like that

4:18

and the answer of course is no

4:21

this parade was very intentionally

4:24

created to be an if a tree falls in the

4:26

forest scenario

4:28

victoria has been known to be a bit of a

4:30

sleepy town and even though this parade

4:33

happened in the middle of the day on a

4:35

weekend

4:37

we may have gotten a total of about five

4:39

innocent bystanders who witnessed it

4:42

moving through the suburbs

4:45

the parade of course

4:47

was not really about phil collins at all

4:49

but about this temporary community

4:52

the roles they took on

4:54

their specific mix of performative

4:57

excitement

4:58

and awkwardness and how they came

5:01

together to become that community

5:04

throughout the duration of the event

5:11

after the parade i became inspired to

5:13

create more work that specifically

5:15

involved the creation of makeshift

5:17

communities

5:18

and

5:19

since then these projects have formed

5:21

about 90 percent of my overall practice

5:34

in early 2018 i put an open call out

5:38

here in victoria

5:40

for men to come perform in a video work

5:42

that borrowed its structural format

5:45

from that of an audition

5:48

the work was loosely conceived to be a

5:50

moving image taxonomy of an arbitrary

5:54

sampling of males

5:56

and the way this performance unfolded

5:58

was largely based on the dynamic between

6:02

the 10 subjects who showed up to be

6:03

filmed

6:19

this quasi audition began by mirroring

6:21

the expectations of the subjects

6:24

with minimal direction i would ask them

6:27

to stand

6:28

or sit or pose and wait

6:32

but as the shoot were on i began to

6:33

notice how each individual would respond

6:36

to the social cues of one another

6:39

almost like they were waiting for

6:40

permission from each other to try

6:43

something new

6:46

if someone started to perform by

6:49

say running

6:51

i would get the entire group to run and

6:53

see what unfolded from there

6:56

i noticed that unlike my live events

6:59

performing specifically for the camera

7:01

created a whole other level of hyper

7:02

awareness

7:03

in the subjects

7:06

some would instinctively come towards

7:07

the camera as often as possible

7:10

others behaved as if they weren’t being

7:12

filmed

7:14

but knew i was watching

7:16

and others put on

7:18

entirely different personas than their

7:20

typical selves

7:21

for the duration of the shoot

7:29

over time i noticed a collective sort of

7:32

group mentality developing

7:34

everyone seemed to become familiar with

7:36

how the other might respond to their

7:38

performative actions

7:40

and when i thought things were becoming

7:41

too familiar i would ask them to try

7:43

performing a new action

7:47

this continued until a breakdown in

7:49

their performative environment took

7:52

place

7:53

for some it became about outperforming

7:56

the others and for others it became

7:58

about letting go

8:00

or almost letting go of the knowledge

8:03

that they were being watched

8:11

i’ve returned to this idea of an

8:13

audition format to play with how we

8:16

negotiate

8:17

our performative roles in relation to

8:19

ourselves

8:21

to those around us

8:22

and to our awareness of the camera on

8:25

several occasions

8:27

these projects often comment on the

8:30

tradition of performance as

8:32

entertainment

8:33

and can range from creative reimaginings

8:37

of historical events

8:39

to

8:41

sight responsive

8:42

performances to

8:45

mock concerts

8:46

and live events

8:48

to simple meditations on the active

8:51

performance itself

8:58

since we’ve been on lockdown i’ve

9:00

obviously had to put the projects i was

9:03

currently filming

9:04

on hiatus as they involve multiple

9:07

participants in close proximity to one

9:09

another

9:11

this unique time we’re living through

9:13

has made

9:14

me all the more grateful that community

9:16

is such a central element

9:18

to my practice and that i’ve had the

9:20

opportunity

9:21

to have these wonderful experiences

9:22

creating work with so many people

9:26

it’s also made me hyper aware of how

9:28

integrated performance really is in our

9:30

day-to-day lives

9:33

beyond being unable to retract myself

9:35

from watching the performances of our

9:37

political leaders

9:38

on television and noticing

9:41

how celebrities are almost desperately

9:43

trying to remain relevant on social

9:44

media throughout this crisis

9:46

i’ve really been noticing how our

9:48

everyday performative actions have

9:50

become almost magnified in isolation

9:54

on my daily walks i can’t stop noticing

9:56

how folks working out and getting

9:58

creative with their outdoor lawn or park

10:01

or sidewalk workouts have become almost

10:03

like a social weather report

10:05

a barometer of how we’re holding up

10:08

i’ve begun to film and photograph some

10:10

of these folks with their permission of

10:12

course and with a long lens from about

10:15

eight meters away

10:17

as a document of this time

10:19

one for every week we’re on lockdown

10:21

so i can remember what it feels like to

10:23

live in this time when intimate

10:25

connection within our communities

10:27

feels so simultaneously heightened and

10:30

out of reach

10:32

if anything this pause we’re

10:34

experiencing has reinforced at least to

10:36

me

10:37

how significant art is to our well-being

10:39

and to our communities and that when in

10:41

doubt or despair humor might be the best

10:44

medicine of all

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