Gene Threndyle's piece for the weekend long WADE show (performances and installations in wading pools in Toronto's parks, curated by Christine Pearson and Sandra Rechico) was one damn fine work of public art. He filled the pool at Trinity Bellwoods Park with inflatable killer whales, each painted with an excerpt from Dante's Inferno. The kids loved it, taking to the whales instantly without a care for the strange dark poetics beneath their bellies. The parents loved it. The art audience loved it. All afternoon we sat around in the sun and shade. Egon Von Bark played old 78s his victrola and they sounded good to us eventhough the needles were dull and scoured threads of vinyl up off the disks.
thanks to Tanya Read for this excellent photo!
There was also a reading from the Inferno. Von Bark stood in the pool and delivered some lovely elocution while the children bumped their whales around his shins. Mark Hazen and Anne-Marie Hood administered a long and challenging test to guage your level of hell (I got 7, which was disconcerting but seemed par for the course).
David Hoffos' piece for WADE at Bellevue Square Park. Photo by Justin Waddell
Another WADE installation I really liked was by David Hoffos in Bellevue Park. It's a night piece, a video projection of a little boy standing in the edge of the pool, his toy boat a little distance out into the water. It's sad and quite creepy. The ghostlike child is life-size, almost part of the crowd, but hopelessly remote, isolated and from us flesh and blood folks by the fact of being a mere video projection. These are the only two WADE pieces I've seen so far, and they've both been excellent. Maybe I'll see some more of them later today.
Any reports on other WADE performances are very welcome in the comments section below. If you want to send me jpegs at smblog@sympatico.ca, I'll post em with your comment.
The whole piece put me in a state of cranky joy.
Where's the helium? Oh, the humanity!
On the island, our wade piece went pretty well, the sunset and electronics both cooperated, and people braved the biting ants and frosty temperatures and seemed to enjoy themselves. Pictures soon!
this looks really great!!
Art audience interacts with Gwen MacGregor's Blue Jello installation for WADE
at Stanley Park. Photo by Jeffrey Matt.
David Hoffos' piece for WADE at Bellevue Square Park. Photo by Justin Waddell
more from Gwen MacGregor's Blue Jello pool. Photo by Justin Waddell.
My only weekend regret is that I didn't get to the island to see Rob and Sarah's WADE installation. Rob, send me a jpeg.
Here's what the WADE website says about the project "Music for Incandescent Events" by Rob Cruikshank and Sarah Peebles at Gibraltar Point:
"Hanlan’s Sunset” highlights the daily event of sunset at the site of a wading pool which is currently filled in with earth and flowers. The sky’s changing light at dusk is measured by sensors which trigger stored fragments of sound derived from the tones of the shô (Japanese mouth organ).
The piece assembles a unique audio composition with each sunset, played through loudspeakers encircling the wading pool, while rays from the sun are simultaneously fragmented and assembled via an array of small mirrors within the wading pool garden.
Thanks for the pictures, Rob! Here's Rob's note: "The rainbow is from our set-up day, thursday. It poured rain, and I was glad I had made the electronics waterproof. At sunset, we saw a sunset rainbow- something I've never seen before. Also, there are pictures of the audience on Friday, and Saturday evening, and a look at the little mirrors that we planted in the former wading pool."
Wade on samplesize (looks good).
|
Gene Threndyle's piece for the weekend long WADE show (performances and installations in wading pools in Toronto's parks, curated by Christine Pearson and Sandra Rechico) was one damn fine work of public art. He filled the pool at Trinity Bellwoods Park with inflatable killer whales, each painted with an excerpt from Dante's Inferno. The kids loved it, taking to the whales instantly without a care for the strange dark poetics beneath their bellies. The parents loved it. The art audience loved it. All afternoon we sat around in the sun and shade. Egon Von Bark played old 78s his victrola and they sounded good to us eventhough the needles were dull and scoured threads of vinyl up off the disks.
thanks to Tanya Read for this excellent photo!
There was also a reading from the Inferno. Von Bark stood in the pool and delivered some lovely elocution while the children bumped their whales around his shins. Mark Hazen and Anne-Marie Hood administered a long and challenging test to guage your level of hell (I got 7, which was disconcerting but seemed par for the course).
David Hoffos' piece for WADE at Bellevue Square Park. Photo by Justin Waddell
Another WADE installation I really liked was by David Hoffos in Bellevue Park. It's a night piece, a video projection of a little boy standing in the edge of the pool, his toy boat a little distance out into the water. It's sad and quite creepy. The ghostlike child is life-size, almost part of the crowd, but hopelessly remote, isolated and from us flesh and blood folks by the fact of being a mere video projection. These are the only two WADE pieces I've seen so far, and they've both been excellent. Maybe I'll see some more of them later today.
Any reports on other WADE performances are very welcome in the comments section below. If you want to send me jpegs at smblog@sympatico.ca, I'll post em with your comment.
- sally mckay 6-27-2004 9:12 pm
The whole piece put me in a state of cranky joy.
- LM (guest) 6-27-2004 11:06 pm
Where's the helium? Oh, the humanity!
On the island, our wade piece went pretty well, the sunset and electronics both cooperated, and people braved the biting ants and frosty temperatures and seemed to enjoy themselves. Pictures soon!
- rob (guest) 6-28-2004 6:16 pm
this looks really great!!
- nanmac (guest) 6-28-2004 10:34 pm
- sally mckay 6-29-2004 8:25 pm
Art audience interacts with Gwen MacGregor's Blue Jello installation for WADE
at Stanley Park. Photo by Jeffrey Matt.
- sally mckay 6-29-2004 10:09 pm
David Hoffos' piece for WADE at Bellevue Square Park. Photo by Justin Waddell
- sally mckay 6-30-2004 5:44 am
more from Gwen MacGregor's Blue Jello pool. Photo by Justin Waddell.
- sally mckay 6-30-2004 5:48 am
My only weekend regret is that I didn't get to the island to see Rob and Sarah's WADE installation. Rob, send me a jpeg.
- sally mckay 6-30-2004 5:50 am
Here's what the WADE website says about the project "Music for Incandescent Events" by Rob Cruikshank and Sarah Peebles at Gibraltar Point:
"Hanlan’s Sunset” highlights the daily event of sunset at the site of a wading pool which is currently filled in with earth and flowers. The sky’s changing light at dusk is measured by sensors which trigger stored fragments of sound derived from the tones of the shô (Japanese mouth organ).
The piece assembles a unique audio composition with each sunset, played through loudspeakers encircling the wading pool, while rays from the sun are simultaneously fragmented and assembled via an array of small mirrors within the wading pool garden.
Thanks for the pictures, Rob! Here's Rob's note: "The rainbow is from our set-up day, thursday. It poured rain, and I was glad I had made the electronics waterproof. At sunset, we saw a sunset rainbow- something I've never seen before. Also, there are pictures of the audience on Friday, and Saturday evening, and a look at the little mirrors that we planted in the former wading pool."
- sally mckay 7-04-2004 7:36 pm
Wade on samplesize (looks good).
- sally mckay 8-08-2004 9:25 pm