slippages
Ice contains no future, just the past, sealed away. As if they’re alive, everything in the world is sealed up inside, clear and distinct. Ice can preserve all kinds of things that way – cleanly, clearly. That’s the essence of ice, the role it plays.
― Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
Life presents some really fascinating opportunities now and again, and I was very happy this one crossed my path!
I presented a collaborative video work at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in Vancouver BC on October 5th, 2018.
This new work was part of a larger performance and installation work – slippages – developed by Montreal artist Deborah Carruthers, that is an outgrowth of her work as Artist in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC. slippages is a synthesis of material from researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) regarding the physical, anthropological, and philosophical properties glaciers. In collaboration with Maestro Jonathan Girard (and Wall Scholar for 2018-2019), Deborah worked with the 110-member orchestra to present a structured improvisational sonic piece drawn from a graphical score she created; the video work we worked on together was presented above the orchestra during performance, functioning as a video score for Maestro Girard, and as a visual cue to the audience to follow along.
A conductor’s score was also created with conductor’s notes; images each score page were provided to the musicians.
Photographs on this page copyright Deborah Carruthers, used with permission.
Working with Deborah on this project opened up my practice to the potential for multidisciplinary work to come at a series of questions or problems from multiple angles. Climate change - the loss of glaciers in particular - is a tremendously complex problem, and one that requires the efforts of many thinkers, many creators of all kinds to address. It is my hope that my contribution to this project allowed some space to think in new ways about glaciers, and the interconnectedness of all life and the delicate balance that we must all strike in relation to the environment if we are to survive.