Tag: Dayna Mcleod

Canada
www.daynarama.com

Dayna McLeod is a practicing performance and video artist working in Montréal, Canada. In 2014, she was the recipient of Le Prix Powerhouse, an award presented by La Centrale Galerie Powerhouse that celebrates mid-career women artists who have significantly contributed to the cultural life of Montréal with determination and without compromise.

Within her practice, Dayna has staged over three dozen independent performance art productions and cabaret works, have twenty-five single channel videos in distribution, have designed video sets for theatre companies and dance productions, collaborated with choreographers, and consulted on artist projects.

Dayna is PhD candidate at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture at Concordia University pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in Humanities that combines studies in performance art, feminism, queer theory, age, and research-creation practices. Dayna’s dissertation research examines how over-40 feminist performance artists use the body (their own or bodies-for-hire) within their practices and work in relationship to mainstream mass culture. As part of this research, McLeod embarked on a one-year durational performance piece that investigated and lived the stereotypes of a ‘cougar,’ a woman over-40 who aggressively demonstrates her sexuality, by wearing nothing but animal print clothing, 24/7 (archived at: www.CougarThis.com).

© Dayna McLeod, Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall, 2018. Photo Henry Chan.

“Great acoustics, but shitty seating.”
“Honestly, WHY? Just WHY?”
“The faint sounds of ovarian partying.”

Curated by FADO Performance Art Centre and co-presented with SummerWorks

You are invited to sing your favourite karaoke songs in this performative installation that examines vulnerability through the site of my body. Wearing headphones that contain your voice and requested karaoke song, this mix is wired via fifty-foot cable into my vaginal canal, which acts as the stage for the audience of my uterus. Other listeners are invited to eavesdrop on your performance through the flesh of my body via stethoscope.

Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall transforms the site of the theatre into a social space where an awkward karaoke party minus the amplified music shares the intimacy of the artist’s body as it is offered up as the venue where dialogue around the cultural and political expectations of bodies marked female and a critique of medical surveillance, reproductive rights and the aging Queer female body collide.

Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall is a durational performance. Audience members are asked to purchase tickets to arrive for a one-time slot but are welcome to stay until the end of the night.

Stay as long as you want!
Sing your favourite karaoke song for Dayna McLeod’s uterus!
Live at Uterine Concert Hall!

CREDITS
Curated by FADO Performance Art Centre
Co-presented with SummerWorks
Conceived and Performed by Dayna McLeod
Technical Direction by Adrien Whan
Attendants: Rhainnon Collett, Theo Gallant, Cara Spooner, Athena Trinh

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THE GOLDEN BOOK
Pick up your copy of FADO’s ongoing pocket essay series, the Golden Book, at the performance. This time, the Golden Book has a blood-red cover in honour of Dayna’s performance. Essay entitled, From Specular to Speculative: Intimate Encounters @ Uterine Concert Hall by Alanna Thain contained within. Alanna is Director, Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; Director, Moving Image Research Laboratory; and Associate Professor, Department of English at McGill University.

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This performance is part of the SummerWorks Presentations programming, offering you a snapshot of contemporary performance in 2018. A vital collection of theatre, dance, music, and live art works from across the country.

SummerWorks supports work that has a clear artistic vision and explores a specific theatrical aesthetic. It encourages risk, questions, and creative exploration while insisting on accessibility, integrity, and professionalism. This year’s eleven-day Festival (August 9-19, 2018) features over thirty unique projects as part of SummerWorks Presentations and SummerWorks Lab. New this year: we’re teaming up with an incredible group of arts organizations to bring you the SummerWorks Exchange, a new stream of the Festival that features artist workshops and professional development opportunities.

© Dayna McLeod, Uterine Concert Hall, Montréal, 2018. Photo Helen Simard.

Golden Book 5 has a blood red cover in honour of Dayna’s performance. Dayna McLeod’s Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall transforms the site of the theatre into a social space where an awkward karaoke party minus the amplified music shares the intimacy of the artist’s body as it is offered up as the venue where dialogue around the cultural and political expectations of bodies marked female and a critique of medical surveillance, reproductive rights and the aging Queer female body collide.

Essay entitled, From Specular to Speculative: Intimate Encounters @ Uterine Concert Hall by Alanna Thain contained within. Alanna is the Director, Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies; Director, Moving Image Research Laboratory; and Associate Professor, Department of English at McGill University.

Golden Book 5: Intimate Karaoke, Live at Uterine Concert Hall (2018) Dayna Mcleod
Author: Essay by Alanna Thain
Design: Lisa Kiss
Publisher: FADO Performance Art Centre
Series: Golden Books, 5th
16 pages; 1 photo (colour); 4.24 x 6 inches ; Print Book, English

Un party pyjama avec des jeux de société, du chocolat chaud et des contes au lit avant de faire dodo.

Part visual art installation and part interactive performance, Mothering is a four-day pyjama party complete with board games, warm Ovaltine, bedtime stories and the familiar touch of mother’s warm hand on your cheek as you drift off to sleep. Audience members are greeted at the door of the gallery, offered a flannel nightshirt and gently encouraged to become a part of the installation itself. Exploring and confounding the line between audience and performer, Mothering recognizes the audience as significant in the art-making process. Just like Mom would.

Thank you for helping me with the puzzle, thank you for not making me do my own dishes, and thank you for brushing my hair.
—Your daughter, Miriam

Trop cool d’avoir trios maman.
—Your son, Jerome

Of course you can bring your friends and stay as long as you want.
—Love, Mom

CREDITS
Created by Moynan King
Performed by Dayna McLeod, Moynan King and Nathalie Claude