LAB #2: Threshold
A public performance series proposed by Christina Anna Trutiak
ARTISTS
Isaak Fong
lwrds duniam
Tess Martens
Staircases vary in shape and size and reflect the architectural and cultural norms of their time. Symbolically, a staircase suggests a continuum for human growth that unites two things; places, ideas or states of being. Stairs feature a duality; they can act as a passage facilitator or a major barrier; an aesthetic delight or a spine-chilling obstacle.
Threshold is a site-specific performance series that invites emerging performance artists to choose a staircase in Toronto and to develop a performance in reflection to this transitional space.
A staircase’s inherent uncertainty and duality will provide a context for progressive actions, interesting dialogues and images for the audience and for the performers themselves. Depending on their context, location, materiality and function; there is a dependence in which our mind and body considers while walking on stairs. We must imbue a sense of trust. The action and option of ascending and descending on a structure integrates a decision that the performer is driven to make in contrast to a monospace of horizontal descent.
The staircase is an odd, fluid and queer space that exists as a threshold for human growth.
Threshold features solo performances representing autonomy within a larger system of interconnectivity. These transitional spaces bridge gaps toward other destinations.
A certain step may change things.
A certain step may evoke something new.
One action will lead to another.
PROGRAM DETAILS
lwrds duniam
Date: Sunday, April 13
Start time: 3:00pm
Duration: 1 hour
Location: 1755 Lake Shore Blvd West, Toronto, M6S 5A3
Sunnyside Park revetment steps, adjacent to the boardwalk south of Gus Ryder outdoor pool. Intersection of Parkside Drive & Lake Shore Boulevard West.
I often dream of stairs surrounded by bodies of water. There are spiritual interpretations for staircases that consider them symbolic for life’s journeys and the cyclical nature of death and rebirth. oneiric, atemporal, sanctuary space is a site-specific land-based performance dreamscape, collaborating with the energies of the stones in relationship to the lake, tapping into their memories, and connecting my body to the magic of the water and land.
Isaak Fong
Date: Saturday, April 19
Start Time: 9:00am
Duration: 25 minutes
Location: Harbord Street Bridge, Harbord Street & Grace Street, 400 Grace St, Toronto, M6G 3A9
Performance consists of a 10-minute field study presentation followed by a 15-minute performance. After the performance, audience is invited to join in walking the route of Garrison Creek with the artist and other “walking collaborators” to the creek head at Lake Ontario near old Fort York (approximate walk duration 1.5 hours).
A field study where artist Isaak Fong performs the role of para-anthropologist/eighteenth-century log driver to facilitate a group “re-excavation” of The Lost Giant Steps buried along the western abutment of the Harbord Street Bridge to break up the “Log Jams” that conceal the City’s buried hydrology.
Tess Martens
Date: Saturday, April 26
Start Time: 9:00am
Duration: 1 to 3 hours
Location: Baldwin Steps, Davenport Road & Spadina Road, 486 Davenport Road, Toronto, M5R 2V3
Whether it be daily workdays or nightly parties, I grind. The travel to work 9-5 grind. The nightclub genital grind. Grind on stairwell railings with a skateboard just like Tony Hawk’s video game. In this performance, I will be climbing the Toronto Baldwin Park steps and sliding down the railing until I get too tired or my vagina hurts from the “pole burn”. After each grind, using sanitary wipes to clean the public railings. Showing the play and leisure of sliding down the railings and the work and labour of cleaning afterwards. I will wear a women’s suit with a skirt and pink underwear to be a working 9-5 woman. Bridget Jones’ famous scene where a camera catches her sliding down a fire pole and the audience can see her knickers will be references. I will play Dolly Parton’s Working 9 to 5 on repeat on a boombox. Grinding 9-5 is a feminist and humorous performance about work and leisure with an absurdist take.
