By Natalie Loveless Michael Fernandes sits quietly in the space. An amplifier buzzing and a microphone in front of him. He pauses, a book in his hands, and looks at us. Putting on his glasses he opens a book and slowly, gently, begins to read. Between the human point of view and that of a …
Michael Fernandes, XPACE, Friday, October 29, 2010 (NL) Read More »
By Natalie Loveless A woman enters the space. Sombre, dressed in black. Holds a ball of red ribbon between her cupped hands and bows her head. A moment of solemnity. She then ties a clothesline with the ribbon across the gallery space, a lustrous red line. This is Irma Optimist, grande dame of Finnish performance …
Irma Optimist, Performance Connection, XPACE, Friday, October 29, 2010 (NL) Read More »
By Natalie Loveless In the center of the gallery is a podium lit by a single spotlight. To the left is an open guitar case, guitar inside. Henry Adam Svec comes in and stands behind the podium, dressed in what I would call graduate student garb. Clearing his throat, he begins to lecture us. “The …
Henry Adam Svec, Songs Just For You, XPACE, Friday, October 29, 2010 (NL) Read More »
By Natalie Loveless We are arranged in the space. Francis O’Shaughnessy tells us where we can sit—there, no further, that is good—and pauses. Sara Létourneau enters with two china teacups, complete with saucers. O’Shaughnessy takes a pair of scissors and cuts a slit in his shirt. Something is bundled under the fabric, at the bicep. …
By Daniel Baird In the early 1980s, Tehching Hsieh conducted his legendary one-year performances, in which he performed a specific symbolic action, or fulfilled a stricture, for the duration of one year. In one, for instance, he punched a time clock every hour on the hour for a year, carefully documenting the instances in which …
Thursday, October 28, 2010—Union Station 9 am – 5 pm the impulse is to share, but i withhold. certain things can be destroyed through their transmission, so today i withhold from sharing and fold into that place of protection my already articulated and re-membered recollection. -karen elaine spncer
Wednesday, October 27, 2010—Union Station 9 am – 5 pm when in the great hall turn west and look up at the arched window between the interior and exterior panes of glass. you may see a ghost-like silhouette of a person walking from one side to the other. -karen elaine spncer
Performance Art DailyToronto Free Gallery | 1277 Bloor St WArtist Talks: October 28Teresa DILLON, Agnes NEDREGARD, and Irma OPTIMIST, moderated by Andrew James PATERSONPresented by Toronto Free Gallery in collaboration with 7a*11d Performance Art Daily is a noon-hour artist talk show series featuring many of the festival’s visiting artists in conversation with local artists. The …
By Natalie Loveless It is three thousand seven hundred and twenty-three minutes into karen spencer’s sittin’ performance at Union Station. It is cold, and I am not the only one here. I recognize a festival-goer sitting with her. Together they gaze gently into the distance, in roughly the same direction, as if waiting for something …
karen elaine spencer: sittin’, Union Station, Thursday, October 28, 2010 (NL) Read More »
By Natalie Loveless I’m meeting Michael Fernandes at noon at the Toronto Free Gallery. Today is the first of four days that Fernandes will be performing, from noon to 5 pm, locations TBA. As I walk along Bloor, I see him seated on a chain across the entrance to a car dealership. He stares into …