GREEN GAZING

GREEN GAZING

A laptop in the centre, open to a complicated program. In the foreground there are medical monitors connected to a plant. There is another plant on the right and more in the background. In the far back there is a projection of indiscernible plants.

GREEN GAZING
Ashley Bowa & Lesley Marshall

Green Gazing is an immersive multimedia installation that includes interactivity, sound, image and biofeedback. In a room of plants, the audience/participants will experience guided movement amidst ambient sound and video rooted in ecological elements. Surround sound and multi walled projections are altered through live manipulation and using bio data gathered  from the plants in the room. The ambient electronic sound and videoscape becomes a co-creation between plant, participant and artist.

Funded by the Ontario Arts Council for research and creation in 2018-2019

Ashley Bowa is an emerging filmmaker, media artist, and arts educator based in Toronto. She is also trained as a yoga, pilates, and outdoor education instructor.

Lesley Marshall / LES666 is an award-winning filmmaker and intermedia artist. Projection art by Lesley has been exhibited at the National Art Centre, Montreal Jazz Fest, and Centre PHI.

 

Keywords: Anxiety | Community

VIRTUAL PATICIPATORY PERFORMANCE
Sun, Nov 7, 2 PM ET
CLOSING DAY

Experience a Green Gazing “Virtual Performance” where the public are invited to engage in a movement class over a virtual meeting space led by Ashley Bowa. Participants can move and see the video response the plants have to the “class”. For this presentation, please create a comfortable space to enjoy the meditation: a comfy chair or a mat on the floor. We invite you to bring nature into your space in whatever way speaks to you (e.g. a houseplant, fallen leaves, a handful of dirt, a bowl of water, etc). You will just need yourself and, if you feel like joining the movements, some space to stretch. A Q&A will follow afterword.

A “Virtual Field Guide” will be available for download to learn more about Green Gazing, investigate indigenous plants of the Toronto area, write down your ecological anxieties, and explore our changing environmental landscape.

Please RSVP below in order to participate in this performance:

Accessibility

If you require ASL interpretation, please reach out to Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_laurenteugene@workmanarts.com, at least 48 hours before the performance in order for us to ensure that we are able to accommodate. Open captioning will be available.

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

Collage of a graph, lung drawing, portrait with flowers for a head

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

Through the voices of various artists, this web-based experience explores the relationship between mental health, language, and lineage. Many awareness campaigns urge us to “break the silence”. But the question of whether – or how – to speak is complicated. Mental health discourses are shaped by particular histories, which reverberate in the present. By juxtaposing multiple perspectives, Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue aims to expand the possibilities for how we communicate about madness, trauma, and neurodivergence. The content is offered in the form of audio files, transcripts, and ASL videos.

The process for Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue began when artist Veronique West invited seven collaborators to make audio recordings in response to open-ended questions about mental health, language and lineage. The collaborators were: mia susan amir, Kagan Goh, Maya Jones, Constantin Lozitsky, Jivesh Parasram, Kendra Place, and Manuel Axel Strain. A digital platform was developed to host the recordings, through collaboration between the Cultch Digital Storytelling Team, Sound Designer David Mesiha, Inclusive Designer JD Derbyshire, Dramaturg Kathleen Flaherty, Deaf Interpreter Ladan Sahraei, Production Coordinator Brian Postalian and Veronique West. Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue was first presented at the 2021 rEvolver Festival.

Consultants: Amy Amantea, June Fukumura, Simran Gill, and MariFer Rios.

For a full list of the Szepty/Whispers: Dialogue team’s biographies, please follow the link below:

CREATIVE TEAM BIOGRAPHIES
Keywords: 2SLGBTQIA+ | BIPOC Experience | Community | Disability | Family

COLLABORATOR ARTISTS TALK
Recording available online Oct 28 – Nov 7

Accessibility

For Artist Talk:
ASL and Closed Captions

For work in exhibition:
ASL, Transcripts, Audio Playback

Content Warnings

Brief references to colonization, war, genocide, child abuse, suicide, and psychiatric hospitalization. Detailed description of ableism, depression, mania, trauma, and a parent’s incarceration. The content does not play automatically and can be paused or skipped.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Digital Platform Realization by: The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team

Developed at Playwrights Theatre Centre as part of the Associates program.

The project has also been supported by:
Upintheair Theatre’s rEvolver Festival
The National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart initiative

The parallel in-person performance has been supported by:
the Canada Council for the Arts
the BC Arts Council
the Province of British Columbia
Playwrights Theatre Centre
Rumble Theatre
Progress Lab 1422
Chimerik似不像 Collective
Boca del Lupo and Rice & Beans Theatre’s DBLSPK series
Mentorship with Boca del Lupo’s Artistic Director Sherry J. Yoon
Universal Limited’s Horizontal Help program
The Arts Club Theatre Company’s LEAP Playwriting Intensive

The Cultch Digital Storytelling Team would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts

Big Feels: Post Radical Growth Symposium

Big Feels: Post Radical Growth Symposium

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The “BigFeels: Post Radical Growth Symposium: Making Space for Mental Health in the Arts is a three-day online symposium for the arts sector. This symposium will be a site of gathering and celebration for artists, communities, and a sector that has continued to shift through adversity and arrive into various states of individual and collective radical growth. BigFeels: Post Radical Growth highlights the importance of an intersectional approach when considering and engaging with mental health themes. We invite you to engage critically with these topics through the symposium’s programming led by Workman Art members ranging from panel discussions, workshops and performances!

The symposium will be hosted entirely virtually. Pre-registration for the symposium programming is required. All symposium events are Free/Pay-What-You Wish.

ANY QUESTIONS?

Contact Symposium Coordinator Hanan Hazime at hanan_hazime@workmanarts.com

ACCESSIBILITY

Closed Captioning services will be provided via zoom.

Self-Care Kits are available on-site. Contact Membership & Hospital Programs Manager Raine Laurent-Eugène at Raine_LaurentEugene@workmanarts.com.

This project is supported by the Canada Arts Presentation Fund Program, Support for Workers in Live Arts and Music Sector Fund.

SCHEDULE

MONDAY NOVEMBER 1

Keynote Speaker – Rochelle Richarson

5:30-6:30 PM ET

Coming from an intersectional perspective, as a Black, Queer, and Mentally Ill Arts Worker Rochelle R will be discussing the importance of navigating Radical Wellness and Self-Care from a professional perspective. The importance of taking care of the self to be able to show up in professional spaces. The need to challenge the “status quo” and resist grind culture, and the difficulties that arise in doing so. Creatives and arts professionals often struggle to maintain that line between creative moments of relaxation and self-care, and the need to remain productive and produce work for capital gain. Constantly negotiating between labour and self-expression. Rochelle will be discussing the challenges and importance of prioritizing radical comfort and care practices as professional arts workers.

Rochelle R (She/They) is a Canadian-Caribbean community-engaged, multidisciplinary theatre artist; writer, producer and advocate for Black, Queer, Mad/Mentally Ill, and disabled communities. Rochelle holds a BA in English and Theatre Studies from the University of Guelph, and they are a recent graduate of reputable training programs in and around the GTA. Select companies and programs include Artist Producer Training Program with Generator, Paprika Theatre Festival: Directors Lab, b current BCHUB, Buddies in Bad Times Emerging Creator’s Unit, Nightwood’s Young Innovators program, Piece of Mine Arts: Internship, Dance Immersion: Legacy Leaders, and a few others.  Rochelle was the Co-Artistic Director of emerging theatre company Low Hanging Fruit Productions and is now focusing her attention on a new Arts and Wellness Space, promoting Wellness Practices for arts workers, primarily those who are members of vulnerable communities. Rochelle consistently promotes and develops opportunities for discussions covering the complexities of intersectionality and allyship while prioritizing members from the Black diaspora. 

Right As Rain, Growing Through Discomfort – A Musical Journey

7 – 8 PM 

Facilitated by Vivek Mehmi

Join Vivek Mehmi, for a performance and discussion of his original music. Vivek will share how each song has helped him move through physical, mental and emotional health challenges. Ending the session with a group discussion on some of the themes in the music and best practices. Attendees will learn how creating music can provide therapy for healing. This session is for anyone who needs inspiration, wants to raise their vibration and loves music!

Attendees are encouraged to listen to Mehmi’s album Right As Rain ahead of time to process the content. A pen and something to write notes during the presentation are suggested.

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2

AdHack Workshop: Changing the Power Dynamics of Advertisements Through Art and Laughter

10 – 12 PM

Facilitated by Stephanie Avery

Join Stephanie for a fun, hands-on workshop that will have you laughing at the absurdity of advertisements. As advertisements become more ubiquitous in our public and, increasingly, private/digital spaces, we need to become aware of their presence, their manipulation tactics and the toll they take on our mental health. Stephanie’s ongoing ‘AdHack’ painting series uses the power of laughter to disarm ads and create a healthier relationship with a medium we are regularly exposed to.

Using reclaimed advertisements as her canvas, Stephanie paints her own whimsical additions directly onto them – strange creatures that interact with or replace the products and models – to critique the duplicitous aspects of consumer culture and the constructs of advertising. Using farce to undermine the pervasive power and influence they wield, she shifts and subverts advertisements from being manipulative and insidious to hilarious and absurd, and transforms the viewer/advertiser relationship from predatory to empowering. In this workshop, she wants you to do the same!

After a short presentation on Stephanie’s process and body of work, participants will be encouraged to grab magazines and paint/markers to join in on the fun! Making one’s own ‘AdHacks’ is an easy and cathartic way of changing how you react to ads. Together, we will share our creations and have casual conversations about the impact ads and consumer culture have on our lives, communities, and world. No art experience is needed to participate, and the sillier the creations, the better!

Bringing magazines or any ephemera with advertisements (the LCBO has free magazines that are perfect for the project), markers and/or paint and brushes is encouraged. Stephanie especially recommends paint markers (available at any art supply store). 

Mental Health In Nature

1 – 2:30 PM

Facilitated by Nathan Cole

Nathan Cole discusses how his outdoor explorations assisted in the recovery and maintenance of his mental health and shares tips on how to enhance your experience in nature. This is a partially collaborative event where participants can share their own experiences and ask questions.

Hope in a World on Fire: Envisioning Utopia as Radical Praxis

4 – 7 PM

Facilitated by iowyth hezel ulthiin

This workshop will be an experiment in the radical possibilities of group visioning processes. Organized in the form of a sharing circle, participants will engage in a group deconstruction of the world that is, engaging in a purging of anxiety and grief at the ways in which the world is failing us both individually and collectively. The group will then attempt to rebuild the world in an image of equity and justice, combining their collective powers to see through the present moment into the potential of future transformation. Within this process is the tension of how to bring about such change and how to engage with the radical need for social and ecological health. In attempting to tackle this subject, the forum will present the potential to purge feelings of helplessness and despair and to set our sights on possible sites of engagement and reformation.

Compassionate Inquiry for Creatives

7:30 – 9 PM

Facilitated by Heather Clear Wind

Come join us for Community, Connection and Creative Expression through Compassionate Inquiry to explore new ways of being and connecting to what makes your heart sing, approaching your creative process with compassion and supportive self-care practices.

There will be a nature meditation and some Indigenous teachings, and Heather will share some of her journey and tools she finds helpful.

We will be connecting with nature as a support system that you can connect with and access 24/7 – which is so important at times of restrictions when one may find themselves on their own (and/or possibly unable to get outdoors).

We will be led on a heart-centered journey of Compassionate Inquiry into mindfulness (present moment awareness) and into new ways of connecting with inspiration for your creative practice bringing your inherent gifts forward to be shared with the world.

There will be a chance to connect to the group by sharing what you find helpful/inspiring and/or to ask questions as we come together in creative community.

Materials needed: You may want to bring a journal or notepad so you can take notes of what arises for you and find a quiet space so you can be on your own for our gathering.

You may also want to have a favourite essential oil (or something you can smell), a beverage or something you can taste, something you can feel, and something that you feel inspired or comforted by.

Visit Heather’s website here:https://soulpurposehealing.weebly.com/

Special Notes:The artist offers this gathering with audio (camera off) mainly for safety as she was in human trafficking as a child and thus doesn’t share her identity online, but also as an act of decolonization, and as research studies show it reduces our carbon footprint and it’s better for mental health

Audio version of course description: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QRmL61xwwGRqgPHnHd9f-3Sacrjq9Gul/view?usp=sharing

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 3

W.O.W.  –  Writing Opens Windows for the Heart and Soul!

12:30 – 2:30 PM

Facilitated by Christina Walsh

Do you have a story to tell? Something on your heart you want to share?  You are in the right place!

In this workshop we will write to a couple of prompts I will provide and read out and put in the chat. We will write in silence for about 10 to 15 minutes. Then we will each read and receive feedback that is positive and authentic. “What did you like about the piece? the voice? the character? What speaks to you about the piece? What resonates?” One of the prompts will be an art-related prompt and the second one will be a writing prompt or both!

The power of being heard begins a journey to healing and transformation. Writing and making art speaks volumes, creates inner and outer connections, and brings people together using the power of their own voice to tell stories. “Come as you are, bring yourself and your voice to write and create art!” No previous art and writing experience is necessary! 

Suggested preparation and materials are pens, paper, newsprint or photocopy regular paper (anything affordable!) pencil crayons, crayons,  a variety of markers, some mixed media paper and/or acrylics, paintbrushes, plastic pallets, and reusable margarine or yogurt containers for water.

CONVERSATIONS AROUND NEURODIVERSITY: Mad & Autistic, Building Inclusive Futures

4 – 5 PM

Facilitated by Emily Gillespie

This one-hour conversation features four Mad/ mentally ill and Autistic artists in different artistic disciplines talking about their experiences in the arts. We will discuss if and how their identity has shaped their art practice.  Both the Mad community and Autistic community have unique politics and pride movements. Panelists will have the opportunity to discuss whether activism has impacted their work. We will also reflect on accessibility barriers in the arts community, what needs improved and what they wish neurotypical people knew. This panel will conclude by asking what the panelists’ hopes for inclusion in the arts sector at large look like as we emerge from pandemic life.

Taking Care While Making Work About Your Life

3 – 4:30 PM

With Justina Zatzman and Rick Miller

Creating autobiographical work or artwork that draws from personal experience can be a powerful and evocative process for an artist and any collaborators. Sharing examples from his own work, filmmaker and photographer Rick Miller offers insights on supporting your mental health through the process of creating autobiographical work, in conversation with friend, collaborator and former Workman Arts Membership Manager, Justina Zatzman.

For one hour, Participants are invited into a conversation about how to support creative work with personal material, not only in caring for yourself, but also to create healthy and supportive creative environments for collaborators. As lifting restrictions allow artists to re-engage more openly with collaborative work, we have an opportunity to envision collective growth in how we care for the artists we work with (including ourselves).

At the end of the conversation, Rick and Justina will share a draft tool that they’re co-creating to offer suggestions for creating trauma-informed creative environments with a focus on filmmaking, but which could be useful for artists practicing collaboratively in any artistic discipline.

The structured discussion will end after an hour, but interested participants are welcome to stay for an additional 30 minutes to share or ask questions.

 CONVERSATIONS AROUND NEURODIVERSITY : The Art of Navigating ADHD

5:30 – 6:30 PM

Facilitated by Kat Singer

Individuals who attract the label of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) tend to demonstrate remarkable creativity, and many find themselves working in the arts, a field marked by precarity and competition for scarce resources. Until recently the presence of ADHD in certain populations, such as those assigned female at birth or adults, has been under-recognized, contributing to a lack of available supports for these populations. This presentation will explore “adult” ADHD and the advantages and barriers it may present for one’s career in the arts. It will also offer education about, and practical advice around navigating several common ADHD-related challenges. 

The Glass Eye

6:30 – 8:00 PM

Facilitated by Angela Sun

Angela has a story she wants to tell that will explain everything — No, that’s not it. She has a story about her “mental health journey”…? No, that’s not exactly it either. She just… has a story she has to tell before some well-meaning writer does it for her. If she will just let herself get out of her own head that is. 

This is a live work-in-process reading of Angela Sun’s play about Madness, representation, and the trauma of having to share your lived experience. The Glass Eye was developed as a part of Cahoots Theatre’s Hot House playwriting unit. 

A Creative Journey’s Medicine Trove

8 – 9:30 PM

Facilitated by Mayra Gemm

In this multidisciplinary performance, creatrix Mayra Gemm will share original acoustic folk songs, intuitive poetry and improvised soundscapes that have sprang as a result of her creative healing journey of almost 2 decades.

By using various art forms to help herself deal with the pain and isolation of living with chronic illnesses, mood disorders and the effects of various traumas, Mayra developed a rich experience of creating as an empowering, reconnecting, resilience building, growth promoting and healing process.

This journey also allowed her to discover her authentic voice as an artist. Her emotive performance style aims to honour and express her innate core essence.

Mayra will gently facilitate the audience to get in touch with their hearts and to listen from this space as she shares her heart.

IN(SITE)

IN(SITE)

In(site) Logo

A Virtual Exhibition
In-Site, Incite, & Insight

Rather than experience the festival’s exhibition on-site, this year we experience it “in-site” — in a website, in the digital world, in the virtual. The works in the festival this year have been selected with the intention of being experienced virtually.

The artists bring insight to their experiences of the world having changed, how it continues to change and what this change can offer. This includes our growing awareness around mental health, our relationships with both the physical and digital worlds, and how the works can incite us into action. The exhibiting works investigate these themes and more, providing room to engage with the arts in a time when interacting and experiencing work has been significantly impacted. Through these works, we recognize that we are in the moment, in the current, in the site.

Visit the virtual exhibition here:

insite.workmanarts.com

IN THE EXHIBITION:

Blurred grey smoke-like smudges.

SELF // ISOLATION
Chelsea Watson

Top half of an individual in front of a multi-coloured graffiti filled wall. They wear mixed textiles of red where their face is covered with a chain mail piece which reveals their eyes.

UNBREAKABLE
Amplify Collective

Black and white drawing of a thin lined body of a human figure with a bird head and thin neck. One arm is a wing where both arms hold a cane each. There are two cross-hatched rectangles with dots

HYBRID PRECARITY
Leena Raudvee

Collage of a graph on the left and a handwritten letter on the right in the background, with a figure above walking away, and a headless figure holding a headless child below. Overtop of the letter is a diagram of a body part nearly resembling the brain. Overtop of the letter and graph is a portrait of a headless figure wearing a button up shirt. This is layed over a colourful rorschach implying that it is the head of this figure.

SZEPTY/WHISPERS: DIALOGUE

Man making "shush" gesture to bird

COAL MINES AND TREE TOPS
Dani Crosby

A laptop in the centre, open to a complicated program. In the foreground there are medical monitors connected to a plant. There is another plant on the right and more in the background. In the far back there is a projection of indiscernible plants.

GREEN GAZING
Ashley Bowa & Lesley Marshall

Three video stills ontop of blueprints and maps

HOW WE CARED
Saroja Ponnambalam & Rupali Morzaria

This year, the exhibition in the Rendezvous With Madness Festival will be presented virtually which will be accessible throughout the festival from October 28 to November 7. Work including timed events and performances will be accessible through the virtual exhibition site through the link below:

VIRTUAL GUIDED TOUR

Watch the virtual guided tour of the In(site) exhibition held on Sat, Oct 30, 12 PM ET

SPECIAL IN PERSON FEATURES

  • How we cared video installation will be on the ground floor window of 1025 Queen St W, available 24/7.
  • UNBREAKABLE performance will be presented live on opening night, in the CAMH Auditorium at 1025 Queen St W.

ONLINE LIVE EVENTS

  • Green Gazing invites the public to engage in a movement class as a virtual participatory performance on the final day of the festival.

ARTIST TALKS

ACCESSIBILITY

If either online or in-person access is a barrier, please contact Paulina Wiszowata at paulina_wiszowata@workmanarts.com.

Workman Arts will have available the In(site) virtual exhibition displayed and interactable on a monitor in their front office at 1025 Queen St W Suite 2400.
Available during Box Office hours:
Monday – Friday, 10 AM – 4 PM.

Visit the Accessibility page for further festival info.

Spring 2021 Virtual Open House

Spring 2021 Virtual Open House

A grid of images: top left - a choir top right - a group of portraits hanging on a wall; bottom left - a fashion show; bottom right - an audience member clapping.

GENRE: DANCE, INTERACTIVE, MEDIA ART, MUSICAL, PERFORMANCE ART, POETRY, SHORT FILM, THEATRE, VISUAL ART

TOPIC: COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, MUSIC

Put Friday, June 25 in your calendar – we’ll be doing an end of term virtual open house to showcase the work that Workman Artists have been doing throughout the spring term. If you’d like to see what we’ve been up to, click the RSVP button to register and receive the link to join. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Schedule

5:00-5:10 Land Acknowledgement/Welcome
5:10-5:15 Performance Art Salon
5:15-5:35 Improv
5:35-5:50 First Person Documentary
5:50-6:10 Find your Voice
6:10- 6:20 The Exploration & Expression of Body/Space
6:20- 6:30 Bruised Years Choir – performance by Julie Crann & Ethelrida Zabala-Laxa
6:30- 7:00 Reclaiming Our Mother Tongues & Write Out of Your Comfort Zone
7:00- 8:00 Self Stories Theatre

 

This event is FREE and everyone is welcome. We hope you can join us to enjoy this showcase from home – wherever that may be! In case the Zoom event reaches capacity, we will also live stream this event on the Workman Arts Facebook page.

We also have a virtual Gallery on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/193283975@N06/galleries/72157719479293760/

  • June 25, 2021 5-8:45 PM

Event on Zoom

FREE

BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS

No recommended events under this criteria

Neuroelastic

Neuroelastic

THIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE EXHIBITION.

Headshot of a person facing the camera with vividly colored stretchy paper strips wrapped around their head.

Creator: Laura Shintani / A/V: Grant Padley

Neuroelastic is a self-activated artistic performance. Taking a cue from the well-known concept of Dr. Norman Doidge’s neuroplasticity, it is inspiring that the mind can adapt in new ways. The artist imagined an idea; by wrapping oneself in streams of coloured synaptic “bandages” this symbolic act can allow thoughts and feelings to show on the outside. Using photography as documentation, a capture of the moment reveals what is hidden. This artwork of self-permission reflects on not only the unseen being seen, but that it can be changed. This collection of images I hope can read as a zany family album of the mind. Neuroelastic is an interior selfie and an invitation to an altered way of being.

Laura Shintani is a Toronto-based multimedia artist who creates work in order to provoke questions in artistic forms. Shintani represents a hybrid of work, art making, study and teaching. She is interested in seeing people embrace the cycle of creativity: playing, problem solving and reflecting. Raised in small-town Ontario, Shintani later studied fashion design at Ryerson University and received a degree from the University of Toronto. After personal discovery she made art a vocation and earned a Master of Fine Art from the University of Windsor. Shintani’s most significant exhibition was at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2019.

This artist has interactive materials which will be provided in the RWM swag bag in order to interact with their virtual content. All ticket holders will be invited to receive RWM swag bags available for free curbside pickup during festival hours.

Images of the Neuroelastic installation in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Henry Chang

Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all ticket purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.

ACCESSIBILITY

Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 10AM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.

ThreadBare

ThreadBare

THIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE EXHIBITION.

A cropped photo of a person in a lacy top with the word “threadbare” embroidered across the chest. Chunky blue-green yarn streams out of their mouth and fills the foreground of the image.

Co-Creator and Curator: Alexandra Caprara / Co-Creator: Raechel Kula

ThreadBare is an interactive textile installation that centers the voices of survivors of sexual and domestic violence and abuse. The piece features a collection of poetry and prose submitted by survivors, sewn into clothing and fabric and interwoven within the piece. Audiences are invited to observe and interact with the structure, which responds to movement using lighting and sound. This piece was created to elevate the stories and experiences of survivors through the repurposing of fabric and clothing and aims to foster conversation, reflection and a shared sense of solidarity and hope.

Alexandra Caprara is a multidisciplinary artist and writer from Toronto. She is a graduate from York University’s Theatre and Creative Writing programs and has worked internationally as a designer and director.

Raechel E. Kula is a multi-disciplinary artist with a background in software and information technology. She brings a systems approach to the dramaturgy and design of interactive and performative works for live audiences.

CONTENT WARNINGS

Rape and/or Sexual Violence

Images of the ThreadBare installation in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Henry Chang

Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.

Join Alexandra Caprara and Raechel Kula on Tues, Oct 20 at 3PM for an Instagram Live event to interact in real-time as they walk you through their artwork and answer your questions. Follow @workmanartsto to get notified when we go live.

ACCESSIBILITY

ASL Interpreted, Active Listener

An Active Listener will be available Tues, Oct 20 from 3-5pm to support this program.
Your active listener for this program is Kat.
You can connect with Kat by phone (talk or text) at (647) 474-2338 or by email at katrissing@gmail.com.

Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 12PM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.

Alexandra Caprara and Raechel Kula will be participating in the virtual panel discussion Literary Balms: the Healing Properties of Art and Text on October 19, at 4 PM. Click here to book a ticket.

ALSO OF INTEREST

Intolerance of Uncertainty

Intolerance of Uncertainty

THIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE EXHIBITION.

Two still frames from the video “Instruction to the Ball Measure” with the following captions: “The ball measure is designed to assess the intolerance of uncertainty “ and “A ball is a particle”.

Creator: Ivetta Sunyoung Kang

Intolerance of Uncertainty is an installation that combines a single-channel video, Instruction to the Ball Measure and the Ball in a fictional setting that resembles the interior of a psychiatrist therapy session. This participatory work asks an audience to sit as “a testee” to assess the levels of their own anxiety. The audience can grab the red ball placed on the table, which also appears in the video, and follow each gesture of the hands interacting with the ball. It is to measure an individual’s anxiety, especially their intolerance of uncertain future events. The Ball physically channels its participant to the imagined realm of psychiatry, unfolding in the video through its tactility.

Ivetta Sunyoung Kang is an interdisciplinary visual and video artist and writer, currently based in Montreal. She studied film directing in South Korea and earned her MFA in Film Production at Concordia University. She has presented short films and videos at film festivals and galleries around the world, including in South Korea, Canada, Germany and the United States. In 2016, Kang was shortlisted for the Simon Blais Award in Canada. She recently published a poetry book entitled Absent Seats and is a co-founding member of the artist collective Quite Ourselves, and the A/V duo CCVX?.

 

This artist has interactive materials which will be provided in the first 50 RWM swag bag in order to interact with their virtual content. All ticket holders will be invited to receive RWM swag bags available for free curbside pickup during festival hours.

To purchase this work, please visit our online store. To purchase only the interactive item, click here.

Images of the Intolerance of Uncertainty installation in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Henry Chang

Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.

ACCESSIBILITY

Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 10AM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.

Ivetta Sunyoung Kang will be participating in the virtual panel discussion Resistant Bodies: The Intersections of Self and Health on October 21, at 1 PM. Click here to book a ticket.

Re:Building Resilience Exhibition

Re:Building Resilience Exhibition

Promotional image for the festival incorporating artworks and event posters by participating artists. Imagery includes clay fish, from “Multitude of Fish” by Jenny Chen, multicolored blocks from “Alpha Support” by Justin Mence, a mobile titled “Cry Baby Mobile”, by Kassandra Walters, wallpaper-style design from “Post-Part” by Longernin Collective, and a pattern from “Ectoplasms” by Megan Moore.

Re:Building Resilience features 25 installations that examine all facets of mental health issues. This will be our last festival at 651 Dufferin Street before moving to a brand new facility at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. What better way to say “good-bye” than to animate all 11,000 square feet with performance art, installations, theatre, dance, film and media art?

Tickets and Viewing Options

Tickets for virtual viewing are pay what you wish. Virtual viewing is available throughout the festival. With your ticket, you will have access to a virtual tour that includes a virtual swag bag with extra features from the 25 projects on offer. All ticket holders will also be invited to receive physical RWM swag bags available for free curbside pickup during festival hours.

Please Note: There is one virtual ticket available for the entire Re:Building Resilience Exhibition. Whether you’d like to see one project or all of them, you only need to book one ticket to access everything. The exhibition runs October 15-25, and all purchasers will be sent a link to view the virtual content. Any ticket bought prior to October 15 will receive a follow up email on the 15th with the link.

ACCESSIBILITY

Self-Care Kits are available for free curbside pickup to ticket holders. Kits can be picked up from 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 12PM-9PM, October 15-25. If pickup is not an accessible option for you, contact justina_zatzman@workmanarts.com for accommodation.

PROJECTS INCLUDED IN RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE

Blurry repeating abstract patterns with thick elongated orange streaks on a yellow background.
Grey K P Muldoon: Mad Carpets - Hotel Carpet Dance Projections
A line drawing of a two-storey house on the top half of the page and a bee with its wings spread on the bottom half of the page.
Saba Akhtar: The Anatomy of a Home
An abstract image of a blue and yellow rectangular block resting precariously upon a brown rectangular block.
Justin Mencel: Alpha Support
An abstract painting of a monstrous figure; its arms are spread and its head appears to be exploding.
Mitchell Clark Meller: Scarecrow
A pixel drawing of lungs, colored in pink and light purple, and outlined in red against a brown background.
Kara Stone: Medication Meditation
A cropped photo of a person in a lacy top with the word “threadbare” embroidered across the chest. Chunky blue-green yarn streams out of their mouth and fills the foreground of the image.
Alexandra Caprara & Raechel Kula: ThreadBare
A multiple-exposure photograph of a crouched nude figure on a black background.
Wieslawa Nowicka: Into the dark of my skin
A backlit circular paper cut image with a series of imaginative scenes involving a sea voyage.
Kristine White: Mad Fairy Tales
A photograph depicting a wire wastebasket in the corner of a room, overflowing with crumpled tissues covered in a smooth, hard yellowish or grayish substance.
Kassandra Walters: untitled (`{`not`}` always like this)
Two still frames from the video “Instruction to the Ball Measure” with the following captions: “The ball measure is designed to assess the intolerance of uncertainty “ and “A ball is a particle”.
Ivetta Sunyoung Kang: Intolerance of Uncertainty
A photo collage depicting a nude person jumping into a water vortex with their arms spread, viewed from above.
Sophie Dow: Mountain Duets
A photograph of a bottom half of a mannikin with a roll of silver duct tape on top of it against a concrete block wall. A piece of pink duct tape on the wall overlaps a piece of silver duct tape, with the two pieces forming an X shape.
Van Lisa: Due to Renovations
A collage-style photographic poster featuring prescription medication in containers, loose pills, notes, and Polaroid photos, overlaid with the text spelling “Prose in Therapy."
Quarter Kid Productions: Prose in Therapy
A photograph of many small hand-sculpted red clay fish laid out on a rocky river bank.
Jenny Chen: Multitude of Fish
Headshot of a person facing the camera with vividly colored stretchy paper strips wrapped around their head.
Laura Shintani: Neuroelastic
Abstract image of blurry, fluid, white shapes on a dark background.
Megan Moore: Ectoplasms
goat(h)owl theatre: Jo, Don't Go There
Post Part
Longernin Collective: Post-Part
A simplified icon depicting a person in a hospital gown hooked up to an IV drip placed within a photograph of a hospital hallway.
Rochelle R: Queen Latifah Give Me Strength
A photographic still life image with an ink bottle, books, a round analog clock with Roman numerals, large transparent bottles containing handwritten messages on yellowed paper, and a quill pen spelling out “Mad Poetry Apothecary” on a piece of paper.
Hanan Hazime: Mad Poetry Apothecary
An event poster featuring a cutting mat, scissors, a ruler, an exacto knife, and a cut up sheet of paper with words “The Collage party”.
Paul Butler: The Collage Party
A photo collage depicting a person, positioned on their back, hanging off the bed in a darkened room. One of their hands points to flaming words “the Apocalypse in Your Bedroom” above them.
James Knott: Apocalypse In Your Bedroom
Photograph of a person mid-somersault on a theatrical stage.
Mike 'Piecez' Prosserman: BREATHE: a dance production on Hip Hop + Mental Health
White logo of a bridge on a dark blue galaxy background.
Pesch Nepoose: The Bridge

ALSO OF INTEREST