Maria, Monk and the Inuits

“We’re very interested in the phenomenon of the voice.” Robert Lepage said in one of his many interviews. And in another, he said, "People always talk about our visual vocabulary and how we're obsessed with the image...but we're also very interested in the word and oral expression, music, lyrics and sound." So this time, they decided to focus on themes of voice, language and speech.

After a summer performance at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival, Lipsynch will move to BAM's Next Wave Festival at Brooklyn in October. Interestingly, the Festival has also programmed "Songs of Ascension" by the noted vocalist Meredith Monk. I have always admired Monks' ability to make groundbreaking exploration of the voice, and this new work's visual elements were developed in collaboration with Ann Hamilton, another artist I am very fond of.

I can't help connecting the scene in Lipsynch where Maria, still recovering from her brain surgery and with bandage on her head, sat in front of a computer and started practicing her voice. Behind her was a big computer screen. Every time she sang a line a new sound channel was created. In a way, the voice, or voices resemble Monk's singing, or even, in the back of my head - very much the Inuit throat singing.

Photo credit: ÉRICK LABBÉ

Lipsynch

I went to see Lipsynch on the last day of Luminato at St. Lawrence Market. I have never seen a play by Lepage before except hearing rave reviews from friends. On the same day was Woofstock, which claims to be the largest outdoor festival for dogs in North America. I struggled my way to the theatre as hundreds of dog lovers strolling through the open market with their four-footed friends.

The theatre was packed. Obviously many took up the challenge and made the effort to attend this marathon performance. Next to me sat a couple from the States here for the weekend to see Lipsynch. Sometimes I feel kind of lucky to live in Toronto. For me, I really enjoyed and marveled at the many levels of ideas and creativity Robert Lepage and Ex Machina have achieved in this play. The opening scene was especially memorable. It unfolded itself in a clever, gorgeously designed and lit passenger-plane interior. At one end a woman sang an opera aria of sorrowful songs (Henryk Górecki, Katowice) while at the other, a baby cried. After all, it's about communication and the human voice.

Prison photograph

Last Saturday was the opening of Leung Chi-Wo's "In the Name of Victoria". The Hong Kong based photo artist was in Toronto. Bonnie and Marcy came to the opening and met Leung. Bonnie, the Director of CONTACT Photo Festival, took a picture of Leung in front of the artis's photograph Victoria Prison III and we all laughed. It was like Leung was actually in the prison. Then Bonnie mentioned the exhibition she and David Liss curated for the Festival: Still Revolution: Suspended in Time which also featured the prison photograph Cell 508 by Mikhael Subotzky. Subotzky's photograph of South Africa’s notorious Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison was taken in 2005 and Leung's Victoria Prison, which is now decommissioned, was taken in 2006.

Tomio Nitto's Camera Shop

What started as mere fun could have some serious consequence.

Tomio enjoys drawing cameras so much that he has decided to open his camera shop - drawing cameras on paper and make them into buttons. Already people are lining up to order a portrait of their favourite cameras. Pretty soon, Tomio, who has not used a camera for many years, will become a camera expert. Voigtlander, Hasselblad, Leica, Alpa, Holga, Holgaroid, SWC, M3, SX-70, Diana, Brownie, Minox. In the last SUNDAY BAZAAR, he even did a portrait of Bolex, a movie camera that Lee Ka-sing inherited from his father.

SUNDAY BAZAAR "The Action of Light"

Bill's Daguerreotypes collection

It was a sunny day when we had our first-ever SUNDAY BAZAAR! The whole month of May is the official photography month of Toronto, so naturally this SUNDAY BAZAAR is about photography. We have invited Bill Grigsby, the Director of Reactor Graphic Studio, to organize a two-table showcase of his Daguerreotypes and Ferrotypes collection. Bill was busy renovating his cottage up north so unable to attend the event. He left us two tables full of beautiful images of people, taken when photography was just invented.

Sally Ayre's Cyanotypes


On the other side was Sally Ayre's wonderful, delicate work of Cyanotypes and VanDykes printed on silk. Sally has been working with these alternative processes for years, gathering ocean memories from her childhood spent in Newfoundland. She has recently moved on to using the Japanese hand-made Hosokawa paper. Talking about Washi, here is Nancy chatting with Sally about the coming Washi Matsuri (Washi Festival) taking place from June 5th to 30th. Last year's big Washi Summit was a success and this year's will be of a smaller scale to keep the momentum going. There will be several exhibitions, workshops and special events. Check out more information from the website:
http://www.japanesepaperplace.com/goings-on/events.htm

A rich, diverse tapestry

Another highlight of the SUNDAY BAZAAR in May was unique buttons hand-drawn by Tomio Nitto. Here is the proud owner Alan Shapiro - he owns a portrait of his Leica M4 (as a button). He mentioned to me that he carried his Leica everywhere and seldom used his digital camera. In the midst of analog, digital, film, pixel, physical, virtual, tactile, intangible... artists seem more comfortable now mixing and matching whatever methods or mediums that suit them. Tomio uses a brush as a camera, Jacquelyn uses a camera as a pen, Cher uses a pin-hole and prints digitally, Sally scans her images and prints traditionally, JK combines images with graphic elements, Bruce puts his images in digital frame, Lulu and Patrick silk-screen their images on T-shirts... a world of confusing languages knitted into a rich, diverse tapestry.

Radiant II

Radiant, a contemporary dance work by Holly Small, is an inter-disciplinary collaboration with Toronto-based composer/media artist John Oswald and theatre designer, Emile Morin from Quebec City. An incredibly complex piece merging dance, video projections, live music and music performed on lap-top computer - all condensed in a good 30 minutes. The whole experience of the work was quite mesmerizing. I was glad to see the premier of this dance. The fruit of a group of creative people still in its rather raw stage. Lionel and Mathieu, the two guests who stayed in our B&B were among the working team and worked as videographer and technical director. They both have worked with Robert Lepage before. In our conversation during breakfast, Mathieu told me that his girl friend is also running a B&B in Quebec city.

Radiant I

The last time I went to a dance performance was a few years back. It was performed by the Menaka Thakkar Dance Company at Harbourfront Centre's Premiere Dance Theatre (now Fleck Dance Theatre). My interest in dance was rekindled by some guests staying recently in the B&B, all of whom are working in the technical area of dance productions. Jean-Philippe and Pierre in lighting design, Lionel in videography and Mathieu in technical direction. Jean-Philippe was here earlier for Susie Burpee's dance piece In Tune, and the second team arrived after Jean-Philippe left, for Holly Small's contemporary dance work Radiant. One morning during breakfast I asked Lionel about the theatre where Radiant was performed. He told me the stage was considered quite large for the two hundred something seats. Later I goggled Betty Oliphant Theatre, a place I have never been to (like so many other places in Toronto) and found out some history. The theatre was designed by Canada's famous architect Jack Diamond. It was originally built as a stage training facility to assist students to make the transition from studio to stage.