Program
Thursday, January 16
OPENING PERFORMANCE //
WHEN I GET THIS FEELING //
I’M FINE //
THUS SPAKE AMMA SYNCLETICARODNEY KEEWATIN - OKANESE FIRST NATION //
LUCIEN DUREY - REGINA/VANCOUVER //
SARAH HILL – BOSTON //
MICHAEL DUDECK - WINNIPEGNEUTRAL GROUND GALLERY, 1856 SCARTH ST. SECOND FLOOR
DOORS OPEN AT 7:30PM
PERFORMANCES START AT 8PMshow more »
OPENING PERFORMANCE //
RODNEY KEEWATIN - OKANESE FIRST NATION8PM ~ 10 minutes (One performance only)
Gather together to celebrate the opening of Performatorium 2014 - spirituality • persona • transformation • transcendence • ritual • ecstasy – with traditional drumming and singing by Rodney Keewatin from the Okanese first nation. Drumming and singing acknowledges inclusivity and signifies the sound of one heart beating - the pulse of the universe - and calls people together in solidarity.
Contextualized within Performatorium 2014, this performance is a way to acknowledge identity and belief systems, the supernatural, and to initiate balance and renewal through peaceful and meditative states of consciousness.
Keewatin’s performance is also a gesture to acknowledge and honour the cultural, personal and creative connections that will be made at Performatorium 2014. Please note: alcohol is not permitted and please remove all headwear during performance.
Rodney (Biddy) Keewatin is from the Okanese first nation in Saskatchewan. He has been enjoying singing for ten years and travels extensively throughout North America sharing his gift of song.
WHEN I GET THIS FEELING //
LUCIEN DUREY - REGINA/VANCOUVER8:20PM ~ 30 minutes (One performance only)
When I Get This Feeling is a live performance combining video and voice in an attempt to bring the there to here, while blurring the lines between subject and object. Working with footage from picturesque locations in the provincial border towns of Flin Flon, Manitoba, and Creighton, Saskatchewan, the project reflects Durey's interest in the allure of peripheral landscapes while considering the importance of place in a world of increasingly global visibility. The performance will feature a cappella renditions of selected hymns and cover songs, filtered through a ritual of digital representation and identification. Attempting to be simultaneously it and I, the performance will contribute to an overall experience of visual and auditory confusion.
Lucien Durey is a visual artist and singer working in Saskatchewan and Vancouver. Drawing from personal and popular experience, his practice explores themes of authenticity and compensation through performance, assemblage, and digital processes. He holds a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design and is currently an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies candidate at SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. He has exhibited in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Vancouver, Portland and New York.
I’M FINE // SARAH HILL – BOSTON
9PM ~ 30 minutes (One performance only)
I will jump up and down in high heels repeating the words I’m Fine. This is an endurance performance that seeks to reconstruct/deconstruct language. The performance I’m Fine is deeply concerned with moving the audience into a state of feeling, through anger on the part of the performer. In this way I view my practice as cathartically dialogical. When I say catharsis I mean: To purge. An emotional cleansing that can be experienced as therapeutic but never therapy. In other words, a strong laxative, that allows one to shit out what is no longer necessary. This extreme change in emotion (on the part of the performer) is where the audience could potentially become activated by his or her own catharsis.
Gender confusion is a small price to pay for social progress. I define social progress as the visible presence of transgender bodies in my work. I am aware that others may not read my body as transgender when viewing my videos or performances, however, this is how I choose to define my body and gender. People can learn to work around my definitions of gender because I have spent my life working around others’ definitions. I have the right and ability to exercise complete control over my flesh. It's mine. I live here. I don't rent. I am not borrowing it. My body belongs to me and I am going to do with it what I choose until I die. My work becomes the performance of reclaiming psychological space.
Sarah Hill currently lives in Boston, and had their first international solo show at Le Lieu, Center en art Acuel, Canada. They recently performed I’m Fine at International Performance Platform Festival in Lublin, Poland at Gallery Labirynt. Sarah received their MFA from the Museum School in partnership with Tufts University. They were a graduate and postgraduate teaching fellow for the performance department. They have studied with Black Market International at the Festival of live Art in Glasgow, Scotland. They have performed at Mobius, Proof Gallery and Anthony Greaney in Boston, Grace Exhibition Space in New York, and at little berlin in Philadelphia. They have screened videos in Melbourne Australia, Scotland, Canada, Miami and New York. Sarah has worked on projects with William Pope. L (Cusp) and Roderick Buchanan (Swim). sarahhill.org
THUS SPAKE AMMA SYNCLETICA // MICHAEL DUDECK - WINNIPEG
9:45PM - 60 minutes (One performance only)
Thus Spake Amma Syncletica is a live ritual/performance from Dudeck’s invented religion and prehistory. Merging synthesizer and live vocal modulation with tactics of tableaux and durational performance, Dudeck will undergo a ceremonial recitation of psalms and texts in English and his invented language[s]. In his attempt to marry the queer and the sacred, the transmission of the texts will range from coherent/literal to obscure and purely auditory. The ceremony will be punctuated by a series of ritual gestures, involving audience participation and the opportunity for reading along with the exegesis contained in his biblical artist book, RELIGION.
Michael Dudeck is an artist and witchdoctor. His work focuses upon the invention and dissemination of a queer religion and prehistory, utilizing ritual/ceremonial-performance art, the writing/recording/live chanting of psalms, museological diorama, religious ‘scriptural’ publications, and the development of fictive institutions. He has performed/exhibited nationally and internationally including John Connelly Presents, The Watermill Center, Center for Performance Research + Parade Ground [New York], The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Ace Art, Platform Center + Plug in ICA [Winnipeg], Gallery Connexion [New Brunswick] Latitude 53 [Edmonton] DeFibrillator [Chicago], The Glasshouse [Tel Aviv], Witte de With [Rotterdam] The Insel Hombroich [Neuss, Germany] and The Brucebo Museum [Visby, Sweden]. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Canadian Art magazine, View on Canadian Art, Border Crossings magazine as well as The Younger than Jesus Artist Directory by PHAIDON Press, Queer Spirits from CREATIVE TIME and The Artist is Present (documentary and publication) from MoMA. He has worked and trained with AA Bronson, Marina Abramovic, La Pocha Nostra among others and was recently the recipient of the Brucebo Foundation European Travel Award, funding a research pilgrimage across Europe.
PERFORMATORIUM LABOUNGE
NEUTRAL GROUND GALLERY
THURSDAY JANUARY 16 // 7:30PM - LATE
SATURDAY JANUARY 18 // 7:30PM - LATE
COMPLIMENTARY SNACKS // CASH BARshow more »
A space for exploration, experimentation, and discovery, Labounge is the festival’s social space. Join us for a drink, a look, and perhaps your own moment at Labounge. DJs spin chill and downtempo beats.