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

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

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

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

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

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

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territories of the erie neutral huron-wendat hodneshone and mississaugas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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project so um last year in covid from

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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managed to through a variety of crazy means bring everyone

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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objects and it was a really unique experience on all levels

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

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idea of bringing artists creatives in conversation with other artists and

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

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

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

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of human beings but it also shifted something fundamental institutionally

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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were going to create a brand new work from that experience

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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your left the works that that the teams chose are installed

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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shakti fine arts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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queerness chronic pain isolation intimacy and togetherness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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so

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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

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

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[Music]

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um

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before 1900 however

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

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

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

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[Music]

15:40

[Music]

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

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[Music]

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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anybody sure and this is on as well yeah um

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

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

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

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

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by the end of this project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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first went into the vault

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

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

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was waiting for the chills in the vault um yeah

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

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

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

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

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

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colorful to um very neutral colors so to speak

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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totally speaking of sculpture

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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

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

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

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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

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you’re exploring while responding to these pieces

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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and we got into this conversation of life cycles of art

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

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

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um so we is is this sounding all right too like

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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interesting

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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like um what or what my art means to me um

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and how i imagine like i guess this art also um

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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preserved forever i think too like like my people um

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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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

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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

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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

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

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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

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

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like getting their voices maybe exploring their perspectives

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

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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

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

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

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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

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

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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

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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

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in my brain still remains

32:15

within the sound of silence

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in restless dreams i walked alone [Music]

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i turned my [Music]

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that split the night and touch the sound

33:02

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

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[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

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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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