Bizzy Bee

I am coming into my second week in Regina.  I have been facilitating a lot of multimedia workshops with youth and doing artist talks.  I've been doing the workshops in the inner-city as well as a school in Ochapawace, which is 180 kms out of Regina.  These workshops and talks are being produced through a partnership with the Sakewewak Artists' Collective where I am dong my residency and the Mackenzie Art Gallery.  It has been very fulfilling work and a lot of what I have been talking about is our relation to technology and the different feelings that come with that when engaging in a digital and non-digital practice.  I have been showing a 2 min video as part of my talk that features hiphop artist KRS One.  He is an artist that has been educating with his music since the 80's.  In the video he talks about the 4 elements of Hip Hop, Emceeing, Djing, Breakdancing and graffitti and how the essence of these forms require no technology.  I think I'll post the video on here soon....cuz I am about to go on a tangent.  What's been funny to me is that only one youth knew who KRS One was.  I must be getting old.

My video piece Sala is slightly on hold right now.  It has given me pause to think more about the ephemeral nature of it.  Been reading and discussing Performance Art a lot while I have been here.  I moved from my hotel into Michelle Serreda's awesome 2 story house.  She performs, teaches and produces Performance Art across the world.  We've been having some very fun discussions about Fluxus, Absurdity, process oriented work, cultural work etc.  It's helped me meditate a bit on my piece.

I have also been painting a little bit and making some digital work for the upcoming group exhibition, Wuulhu - to fuse together, here that I will do with the youth I am collaborating with. And a a design I made for an event I will be performing in at the W2 in Vancouver in November called Indigenous After Dark.  I will be performing live-visuals with my group Skookum Sound and will be mapping video installations throughout the W2 space and in the Woodwards atrium.  I have been busy organizing the technical aspects of that in my spare time.

Image for Indigenous After Dark Poster

Image Design for poster - Wuulhu group show w youth from Ochapowace and North Central Family Centre.

sala = patience - stills and screen captures

travelin'

I have arrived in Regina for a 2 week residency.  I will be spending some time making a series of new drawings while I am here.  I walked around the city today.  It was empty of pedestrians and everything was closed with the holiday thing going on.  I was fascinated by the square and rectangular shape of nearly all the buildings.  I guess this isn't so unusual, but the way the stack into each other creates some interesting shapes and grids.  I started working on a geometrical drawing based on my little excursion today.

I have finished the first edit of my video, Sala.  I am still working on the artist statement for it and will continue editing and refining the piece.  I felt like I should change the name of the piece to exhaustion or stamina.  Taking photos in photo-montage style with no remote while trying to record a live-painting isn't the easiest thing.  My neck and back are still pretty sore from painting on the floor in awkward positions.  I partly did this on purpose and was actually inspired by an interview I listened to w Jack White a musician with the White Stripes and Dead Weather.  He was talking about how he makes himself purposely uncomfortable on stage with how he sets himself up when he is drumming with the Dead Weather.  He said he wanted to create these uncomfortable scenarios so he felt sharper and was challenging himself as an artist to not get too complacent.

I will post some stills tomorrow...internet here at the hotel won't let me

More to come....