Tag: Claudia Edwards

A performance series for the start of times

Put together by Shannon Cochrane and Francesco Gagliardi

ARTISTS
Cara Spooner (Toronto)
Claudia Edwards (Toronto)
Jehan Roberson (USA)
Joe Culpepper (USA)
Mani Mazinani (Toronto)
Marcin Kedzior (Toronto)
Mathieu Lacroix (Montréal)
Nadège Grebmeier Forget (Montréal)
Sue Murad (USA)
Vanessa Dion Fletcher (Toronto)

PLUS limited-edition placemats designed by Lisa Kiss, with drawings by Hazel Meyer.

On the Table Off the Table is a series of commissioned performance works engaging with the table as context, stage, and trope. Aspiring to aesthetic neutrality or demanding attention as a chosen object, the table reappears throughout the history of performance, at times taking center stage, at other times hiding in plain sight.

For this series, artists working at the confluence of performance art and a range of diverse practices—from writing to dance, from sound to magic—will create live work in conversation with performance traditions about, around, and on tables.

FADO Performance Art Centre’s first post(?)-pandemic live series, On the Table Off the Table also intends to provide artists and audiences with an opportunity to re-learn together how to inhabit the space of public presentation, rediscovering the solitary workstation as a place of gathering and play.

DETAILS & INFO

• There will be 1–2 performances each evening.
• Doors will open at listed times. Performances will start 30 minutes later.
• Mask-wearing for audience is mandatory in the performance space. Exemptions respected.
• Performers will not necessarily be masked while performing.
• Accessible washrooms are located on the 4th floor.
• Non-alcoholic drinks will be served, please eat your dinner before arriving.

Free. All welcome. Tell us you will be attending. Register on Eventbrite.

SCHEDULE
September 23 @ 7:00pm: Cara Spooner, Vanessa Dion Fletcher
September 24 @ 7:00pm: Joe Culpepper & Marcin Kedzior, Claudia Edwards
September 29 @ 7:00pm: Sue Murad, Mathieu Lacroix
September 30 @ 7:00pm: Mani Mazinani, Nadège Grebmeier Forget
October 1 @ 5:00pm: Jehan Roberson

Jehan Roberson’s performance is co-presented by Hemispheric Encounters, a partnership project supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Canada
https://claudiaedwards.info/

Claudia Edwards is a performance and visual artist based in Toronto, Canada. Of Indo-Guyanese and British descent, their work explores issues of identity, memory, queerness, power, and decolonization. Their approach is conceptually driven and formally determined by operation and circulation, spanning the forms of socially-engaged performance art, persona, somatic dance, photography, video, text and objects. Edwards has created performances for Pi*llOry, The School of Making Thinking, Flux Factory, Virtual International Exchange, and more. Their curatorial work includes HOTWIRE, a live art series featuring QTBIPOC artists hosted in residency at Hub14, and serving on the Rhubarb 2020 curatorial collective. They obtained their BFA at Concordia University in 2016.

NADI + FADO + MERCER UNION

This program is an accompaniment to NADI’s exhibition, Native Art Department International: Bureau of Aesthetics, at Mercer Union from March 14–October 31, 2020. 

ARTISTS
Claudia Edwards
Deanne Hupfield
John Hupfield
Louise Liliefeldt
Abigail Lim
Lutan Lui
Nathan Roy

In the final weeks of Native Art Department International: Bureau of Aesthetics, artists Native Art Department International (NADI) and FADO Performance Art Centre are facilitating a series of performance (and other) interventions in the space of NADI’s exhibition at Mercer Union.

Created by participants working in a variety of disciplines including performance, dance, music and martial arts, these activations demonstrate NADI’s commitment to kinship and their desire to build solidarity through forms of collaboration that promote non-competition. Each performance is privately executed and the documentation of each gesture will live on the websites of [FADO Site] and [Mercer Union Site]. This approach speaks to the adaptive methodologies of artists and institutions alike to consider how the pandemic environment impacts the practice and presentation of performance art. Here, the perennially debated theories concerning liveness dissolve for a timely discussion around intimacy, kinship and support; tenets that are fully embodied within the ethos and history of performance work. 

ABOUT MERCER UNION
Mercer Union is a non-profit, artist-centred space in Toronto that was founded by twelve artists in 1979. The organization has a unique track record of presenting innovative exhibitions and programs with Canadian and international artists in formative and established stages of their careers. Mercer Union is dedicated to supporting the production of new and experimental work, assisting artists in realizing pivotal projects. Mercer Union has the will and flexibility to take on ambitious projects and fosters an intimate and supportive space for artists to develop and take risks with their work.

Image © Louise Liliefeldt & NADI, 2020. Photo Louise Liliefeldt.