Open Projects Archive
SiNS Dance
July 31 - August 2, 2012
Performed by SiNS Dance, SHIRTS + SKIRTS: a
tournament of many skills combined dance, improvisation, contact dance and
park games. Performances took place daily at 5:00 and
5:30 p.m., Tuesday-Thursday, July 31 - August 2, 2012.
SiNS (Sometimes in Nova Scotia) dance is a collective of contemporary dance
artists that frequently traverse Canada, who create rich contemporary dance work
through collaborations and cross-Canada partnerships. The collective was
co-founded in 2005 by Jacinte Armstrong, Susanne
Chui, and Sara Coffin. SHIRTS + SKIRTS was
first staged in Vancouver’s Stanley Park as part of the Dancing on the Edge
Festival in 2008. Alongside the co-founders, the Halifax premiere will also
feature Vancouver-based dance artists Monica Strehlke and Amanda Sheather, Montreal-based Gillian
Seaward-Boone and acclaimed Haligonians Ruth-Ellen Kroll
Jackson, Rhys Bevan-John and Kathleen
Doherty.
Following a strict set of guidelines the players in SHIRTS + SKIRTS play out the rules of several afternoon park games combined into one. The
event is a rousing match that seamlessly flows from dance to sport to contact to
highflying action framed in the energy of the survival of the fittest. The score
is designed so that each player’s prescribed task becomes the choreography and
the outcome is different every game. Playing football (soccer) in one direction,
handball in the other and wrestling in the middle the players play to exhaustion
while flying over each other, deeking around one another, and stopping at
nothing to win the game. A secondary character called “referee” oversees the
event keeping the players in check, and tallying the score of the game.
The project specifically designed for the outdoor setting took place in
the Halifax Commons in sports field 16 adjacent to Trollope Street and across
from the Citadel High School. Open-air on-site rehearsals took place July 27, 29, 30 and 31.
Lisa Lipton
May 18-19, 2012
 |
The Opera, scene from Window Ballet with
Ann Denny
Photograph by Mairin Prentiss |
Window Ballet 2: Electric Boogaloo by Lisa Lipton is an immense collaborative performance-based
project where numerous artists/musicians combined their talents to create one
theatrical narrative. Window Ballet first debuted in 2010 during
Halifax’s Nocturne: Art at Night. Lisa remounted and designed a
performance specifically for the windows of the Gatekeeper’s Lodge in Point
Pleasant Park. Each window was read as an “act” in a play, a portion of a
larger narrative that will be read at night, one window at a time. Audiences were
invited to view the performance from perspective of the Lodge’s lawn, and follow
its progression from one room to the next.
In Window Ballet 2: Electric Boogaloo Lisa Lipton chose to take
on the tiny castle at the edge of the Park – also know as the Gatekeeper’s
Lodge. Here, she developed a brand new electrified narrative and
inviting various musicians and visual artists to explore fresh material for the
second rendition of the project.
The presentation included musical compositions by Victoria Parker and Lisa
Lipton, Jfm (Jesse Frank Matthews), Evan Cardwell, Ryan Allen, SpaceandTime
(Justin Karas), Alana Yorke and Ian Bent, Ann Denny and Jess Lewis. Contributing
visual artists included Eleanor King, Joel Apple, Maggie Boyd, Sherry Lynn
Jollymore and Lisa Lipton.
Performers included Laura Peek, Tim Dunn, Sam Sternberg, Aaron Sinclair, Daina
Travenier, Aaron Fraser, Amy Belanger, Ben Gallagher, Justin Karas, Claire
Seringhause, Nick Shaw, Dave Ewenson, Alana Yorke, Ian Bent, Rebecca Zolkower, Bob Redmond, Bethany Riordan-Butterworth, Jesse Frank Matthews, Kayla Conoley, Dan Joy, Lucia Stephen, Simon Manzer, Veronica Simmonds, Evan Cardwell and more.
To view documentation from the project visit http://www.frankiefrankie.com/window-ballet-2-electric-boogaloo.html
Melissa Laverdure
February - June 2012
Melissa Laverdure's Special D is a art project commemorating the ever changing commerce of realestate in HRM. Special D urges the community to remember what once was. The small, travelling exhibition of postcards was set up inside commercial spaces such as coffee ships where people could sit and contemplate.
Scott Saunders
January - March 2012
Scott Saunders activated the site of the former Chronical Herald building with Town Square, an installation consiting of 117 manniquin-like "figures" that were installed inside the security fence. The figures were constructed using wood, foam insulation and styrofoam heads and then clothed in formal attire sourced from local second hand shops. The design and aesthetic of each figure was more sophisticated than your average scarecrow yet far less polished than a store mannequin.
The artist explains, "One of the most facinating aspects of this exhibition was my required daily maintenance of the installation site.... My presence at the site became an integral part of the work as I would interact with and answer questions from the local populace as to the meaning of the work.
To view documentation from the project visit http://scott-saunders.net/town-square/.
William Robinson
August - September 2011
 |
Photograph by Mat Dunlop |
William Robinson’s Parchetypes explores two real-life personalities who define the experience of attending Point Pleasant Park through their musical performances. These parchetypes or fathers of the park use this extraordinary urban forest in order to nurture the park's natural elements and entertain park goers with their musical expressions. The two archetypal figures of the park, the Anonymous Bagpier and the Gatekeeper, were interpreted in two separate performance phases. Phase one (dis)embodied the sounds of the rogue bagpiper; musicians were commissioned to play piano music on an old upright anonymously hidden in the park's forest. During phase two William sat as the gatekeeper to the park playing the recorded sounds from the piano performances on a portable tape cassette player.
For more information visit the artist's blog at http://parchetypes.blogspot.com/ or:
Zachary Gough
November 26 and 27, 2011
In April 2010, a $20 pelt incentive for registered trappers as part of a management strategy to control the spread of the eastern coyote in Nova Scotia. Prior to this incentive, coyotes were reported to have aggressive traits, and to be growing in numbers. In response to this Zachary Gough directed five performances, reflecting the adaptive coyote population. He states "The goal of his was [project] was to take the focus away from coyote over-population, and place it on the root of the problem of over-development, car culture and a disregard for the natural landscape."
To view documentation of the project visit http://zacharygough.ca.
Dustin Harvey created FAREWELL,
HALIFAX! a site-responsive, theatrical, and revealing performance,
exploring Halifax as a temporary Utopia.
On an ordinary night, in a place you might pass by everyday, two
performers
make an attempt to say goodbye to all the past and future
people to leave
Halifax. There are reoccurring comedic/ tragic
episodes in which there are
people singing farewell ballads, reading
messages, and waving goodbye. There
are also stories about community,
about what it means to live in a community,
and the ways that choice
greatly impacts who we are. They also imagine the
place if everyone
that left had stayed.
FAREWELL, HALIFAX! is a collaborative project created and performed by Dustin
Harvey (secret
theatre), and Chad Dembski (surprise
performance, Montreal).
FAREWELL, HALIFAX! is written about in The Coast's Art Attack here.
Kat Shubaly
August 12 - October 16, 2011
Photo courtesy of Carolyn Hirtle.
The One Night Stand Pop-up Gallery was a transportable, outdoor
gallery, with the purpose of engaging public space as a venue for displaying all
forms of art. Curated by Kat Shubaly the gallery will include
music, visual art, performance art, and film. Featured artists included Special Costello, Dream Friends,
Old and Weird, Andrew Patterson, Iain Soder, Chloe Sullivan, Jonathan Carroll, Katie Roux, Maddy Matthews, Natasha
Klimenko, Carolyn Hirtle, Danika Vandersteen,
Luckas Cardona, Ashley Bedet, Evan Elliot, Charlie Tyrell, Adrian Lee and Michael Fraiman.
Eyelevel Gallery
June 25-26, 2011
 |
Erased de Comrie by Allison Comrie |
In June 2011 Eyelevel Gallery hosted a public performance series in Point Pleasant Park.
Participating artists included Allison Comrie, Andrew Maize, Barbara Lounder and Will Vandermeulen. Perfomanced temporarily activated different areas of the park, engaging park visitors and accidental audiences. Each day concluded with talks at the Gatekeeper's Lodge, allowing the public to learn mor about the artists' practices and performances.
An interview by The Coast with participating artists can be found here.
|
