A
Carrying Vessel

“If it is a human thing to do to put something you want, because it's useful, edible, or beautiful, into a bag, or a basket, or a bit of rolled bark or leaf, or a net woven of your own hair, or what have you, and then take it home with you, home being another, larger kind of pouch or bag, a container for people, and then later you take it out and eat it or share it or store it up for winter ... if to do that is human, if that's what it takes, then I am a human being after all.”

-Ursula K. Le Guin

Details from exhibit installation- interior

The country of Canada carries a complicated colonial history written across its landscape. While often a self-proclaimed “mosaic” of cultures and experiences, a dominant culture inherited from imperial Britain has shaped most of the country's current modes of expression. This unique situation defines the artistic approach, design practice and accessibility to opportunity for those who create on colonial Canadian soil.

It is rare for equity seeking artists to find outlets for expression of their work
unhampered by the expectations of the majority culture. Some of us have forced ourselves to adapt in order to survive, while many continue to operate outside the established boundaries at the expense of access to resources. Ongoing international activist movements and the closure of theatres across the country during the global pandemic, encourage Canadian artists to seek new outlets for their work at this unique point in history.

With renewed energy, artists wish to express themselves and hold space for traditional ways of knowing and the wisdom of newcomers alike to broaden the national discourse. Harnessing this momentum, we will generate a literal vessel to carry these experiences across the country and create an opportunity for encounter - of artists, audiences, unique ideas and diverse experiences.

Activation within exhibition installtion. Design material by featured artist Whittyn Jason.
Photo- Jack Chipman

Process sketch by our curatorial team

This vessel gathered artistic output from a group of performance designers living across the country who position themselves both within and outside of dominant culture.

Exterior view of exhibition installation

Physically, the exhibition was manifest as a transforming, interdisciplinary installation. Artists were invited to intervene and contribute with participatory components in space lighting, sound, projection and costume design. This porous, cross-disciplinary process revealed opportunities for hidden gestures. Each artist’s expression of their work and creative process was available to the audience to discover. When an audience member uncovered an activation point it would initiate a scenographic event which expanded and filled the entirety of the vessel.

These rich but momentary encounters were able to highlight the transient and precarious nature of work created outside of the support of the dominant culture and help our audience to understand both the risk and reward that equity seeking designers must balance when creating work in Canada. These designers have navigated visible and invisible barriers in the traditional Colonial theatre system. We aimed to highlight their work, passion, and artistic enquiry - not necessarily focusing solely on their identity.