MULTITUDE OF FISH – ASCENSION TALES
Multitude of Fish – Ascension Tales is an animation that tells the story of fish ascending into the heavens, symbolizing spirits being uplifted. This animation was created by hand drawing each frame. The images were derived from the artist’s mental wellness journey, specifically the healing of past trauma and depression.
For the past few years, Jenny Chen has worked with the recurring image of water and fish to symbolize the flow of energy. This larger body of work titled, Multitude of Fish, exists in mediums such as drawing, painting, clay sculptures, installation and animation. The fish moves organically through its surrounding space, leading the viewer on different journeys. These spaces are reminiscent of the inner realm while taking inspiration from outer landscapes.
Jenny Chen is a visual artist living in Toronto. She makes art to process the world around her while raising questions about existentialism and spirituality. Her work uses symbols to create mystical environments inspiring viewers to wonder about life beyond the material world. She graduated from OCAD University with a major in Drawing and Painting and a minor in Illustration. Since then, Jenny has worked mainly in watercolour, pen and clay. Her exhibition history includes the Small Arms Inspections Building, Toronto Media Arts Centre and Living Arts Centre. She has received grants for her work from the Ontario Arts Council.
Artist website: jennychen.me
Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC Experience | Community| Trauma
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion
This year, the exhibition in the Rendezvous With Madness Festival will be presented in-person throughout the festival from October 27 to November 6.
VENUE:
The exhibition is held at Workman Arts Offsite Gallery, Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 302, Toronto.
DATES:
October 27 to November 6, 12 – 6 PM.
EXHIBITION OPENING & ARTISTS TALK
October 29, 1-4 PM, Talk at 2:30 PM
After the opening reception, engage with the artists of kind renderings as they delve into their work and practice.
TOURS
Please join us for a guided tour on Thursday, November 3 at 5 PM
ACCESSIBILITY
If in-person access is a barrier, please contact Raine Laurent-Eugene at raine_lauenteguene@workmanarts.com.
Visit the Accessibility page for further festival information and wayfinding.
ALSO OF INTEREST
Anda Zeng & Natalie Wee / 2022 / English / Canada / 15 minutes
A Voice Through The Melt, a multi-disciplinary piece incorporating spoken word and music, is a collaboration between musician Anda Zeng and writer Natalie Wee. In this performance piece spanning 11 to 12 minutes, the collaborating artists open new pathways for entering belonging, mental health, selfhood, and grief.
Individually, Anda’s cinematic songwriting allows for an embodied engagement with feeling, whereas Natalie’s written words create a cerebral experience guided by the reader’s input. In this crossover collaboration, Anda’s voice and harp create a sonic resonance with excerpts from Natalie’s new poetry collection, Beast at Every Threshold, performed in spoken word style. This creative call and response not only allows audiences to engage the work in a new way but also explores new interdisciplinary possibilities.
Natalie Wee (she/her) is a queer creator whose work explores themes of race, gender, queerness and nationhood. She is deeply informed by grassroots communities. She has written two poetry collections: Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (San Press, 2021) and Beast At Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022). Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, Natalie is currently a settler in Tkaronto.
Learn more at natalieweewrites.com.
Anda Zeng (she/her) writes cinematic night songs for the daydreamer. Her years of creating impressionistic blends of harp, piano, dreamy vocals, and visceral lyrics culminated in the release of her debut EP, Night Dress, produced by Jonathan Wu. At once soothing and wounding, Night Dress lures listeners through the small hours into dawn, through the thicket of our illusory selves into our vulnerable human core. Anda is also a vocalist, harpist, and songwriter for the band Tiger Balme.
CREATIVE TEAM
Natalie Wee: Spoken Word Artist
Anda Zeng: Singer and Musician
Keywords: Anxiety | BIPOC experience | Community | Depression | Grief
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion
ALSO OF INTEREST
MALPENSANDO / 2022 / English / Canada / 120 minutes
These students impressed in their Level 1 Grad Show and are now back for more! Come and witness 6 weeks of hard work and dedication boiled down to one amazing comedy night! These students will speak from the heart and (hope to) make you laugh till you drop!
Originally from Costa Rica and Colombia, Stephan Dyer and Juan Cajiao are bilingual corporate leadership and communication trainers who also happen to be award-winning comedians and improv experts.
Leaving their executive positions in the banking world in 2017 to pursue their professional careers in stand up comedy, they have successfully founded MalPensando, a bilingual (English, Spanish) comedy and public speaking school.
CREATIVE TEAM
Juan Cajiao
Stephan Dyer
This program was made possible by the generous support of The Slaight Family Foundation in partnership with North York Arts.
CONTENT WARNINGS
Loud sounds
Swearing / Mature language
Sexual Content
Keywords: BIPOC Experience | Community | Depression | LGBTQ2S+ | Racism
#RWMFest #MoreThanRebellion
COMMUNITY PARTNER
GENRE: MUSICAL, PERFORMANCE ART, VISUAL ART
TOPIC: COMMUNITY, EDUCATION, MUSIC
TYPE: PERFORMANCE, WORKSHOP
Put Thursday, December 16 in your calendar –The Workman Arts staff would love to invite all members to our year-end Holiday Gathering on Thursday, Dec 16th at 6-8PM to celebrate the year 2021 and welcome a new year filled with infinite possibilities and opportunities.
The night will consist of hands-on zine-making activity, some musical performances, a possible carolling sing-along, and the night will end with a raffle, 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.
Creative Zine-making Workshop
Wanna make a zine?Join Raymond Helkio for this 30-minute workshop where we’ll each create our own zine. You don’t need any special skills – or even an idea for your zine (but if you have one that’s great!) just show up and we’ll have a great time making something as a group!
Materials: Sheet of paper (any size as long as it’s a rectangular shape), scissors, black marker or pen/pencil.
This event is FREE and everyone is welcome. We hope you can join us to enjoy this showcase from home – wherever that may be!
*Please come in your best holiday sweater
BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS
No recommended events under this criteria
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.
ALSO OF INTEREST
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
ALSO OF INTEREST
UNBREAKABLE
Amplify Collective
Amplify Collective loudly and proudly presents the performance experience
UNBREAKABLE.
People in positions of power and their systems of oppression exert intense pressure on historically oppressed individuals and communities. Still we rise! We will not crumble in the face of this Intergenerational Trauma. Instead we continuously challenge racism, sexism, poverty and injustice. United we push back against these oppressive systems, the patriarchy and inequity. The strength that exists within our communities and the weight of injustice is woven within this performance through the use of symbols, body movement, music, distressed textiles and elaborate, wearable sculptures. Individually we endure, but collectively we are UNBREAKABLE.
Together we continue to heal!
Performances by Kayla Ross-Jackson, Caitlin Marzali, KJ McKnight, Matt Eldracher, Sebastian Marzali, Chy Ryan Spain, Scarlet Black, Sze-Yang Ade-Lam, Aryana Malekzadeh, Jaz Fairy J & more!
CREDITS
Curation & Costuming: Allie Amplify
Lighting Designer: Sebastian Marzali
Set Assistant: Jack Comerford
Makeup: Elene Seepe
Hair: Dmitry Komendant
Amplify Collective is a Toronto-based wearable art, performance and advocacy company. They create one-of-a-kind wearable art pieces, as well as host community classes and live experiences. Founder Allie Amplify has an extensive background in fashion, marketing and events. Her designs have lit up the stages of Fashion Art Toronto, the MMVA’s, PRIDE, the ROM and more!
Amplify Collective is a community of individuals with lived mental health and addiction experiences. Despite these challenges they have prevailed and hope to share a message of resilience and growth.
Turn up the volume with Amplify!
Keywords: 2SLGBTQIA+ | Activism | BIPOC Experience | Community
OPENING NIGHT & RECEPTION
Reception + The Meaning of Empathy (with panel) + UNBREAKABLE
Starting at 5 PM at CAMH Auditorium
IN PERSON PERFORMANCE
Thurs, Oct 28, 9:30 PM
CAMH Auditorium, 1025 Queen St W
VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE
The recorded live streamed performance is available to view in the In(site) virtual exhibition:
Content Warnings
Loud sounds
Nudity
CO-PRESENTER
ALSO OF INTEREST
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/
BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS
No recommended events under this criteriaThis is the Inspiration You Need Right Now - Toronto Edition
Based on a 2021 Digital Workshop Series that Lisa Anita Wegner created for Yuri Araj for KickStart Disability Art and Culture in Vancouver, Workman Arts presents the Toronto Edition. You will hear from Apanaki Temitayo M & Lisa Anita Wegner, two extraordinary artists who live with multiple invisible disabilities and have made it a priority to not let that stand in the way of achieving their creative and life goals. Join us for an hour and a half long presentation of art, films, stories and inspiration. Talks will be followed with a Q&A period.
Where: Zoom
When: Thursday, April 8, 2021, 6 PM – 7.30 PM EST
This is a free event for Workman Arts members and the general public.
ASL interpretation and live captioning will be available.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Born in Toronto and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, Apanaki Temitayo M is a single mother of three. She is an author, spoken word poet, actor, multimedia artist and teacher. Her canvas compositions are an expression of her Trinidadian heritage and spirituality. Apanaki is currently the CAMH 1st Artist in Wellness. She is currently an Art Facilitator with Workman Arts Art Cart Program and the Textile Museum of Canada, Community Voices Outreach Program. She was the Workman Arts Artist-in-Residence for 2017 – 2018. She has been featured at Workman Arts, Being Scene 18th Annual Juried Exhibition 2019 at the Toronto Media Art Gallery. She has made her international debut at the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department, 9th Annual African American Fibre Art Exhibition: Maya Angelou, with her original artwork, Mama’s Watching in South Carolina. Her New York debut at The Amazing Nina Simone Documentary Film by Jeff Lieberman, with her piece Nina Simone Fragmented.
She was honoured to be the first woman of colour to be in the Room Magazine: Woman of Color Issue for 2016 and her commissioned artwork Oshun Blooming was the face of Grow Room Feminist Literary Art Festival, 2018. Apanaki teaches her art practice at Workman Arts Encore Program for Inpatients, with experience as a facilitator CAMH, Gifts of Light, Workman Arts Art-Cart Program, Toronto East General Hospital, Mental Health Outpatient Clinic, Drop-In Art Class and at Workman Arts, CAMH. Rise Asset Development, helped to support her in becoming the Sole Proprietor of APNKI Designs. Her handcrafts and fine artwork merchandise, soft furnishings and accessories, are all made in Canada. She received an Honourable Mention in 2015, and received the Rise’s Peer Powered EnterpRISEr of the Year Award at the Dr Paul E.Garfinkel Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement, RISE Asset Development, from Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto.
To see more work please visit: https://apanaki-temitayo-m.pixels.com
Lisa Anita Wegner a MAD and disabled public artist. Lisa is a filmmaker, performer, curator, producer and art project consultant at haus of dada. Lisa is the creative producer of Mighty Brave Productions, an award-winning multi-media production company and a founding member of the Akhilanda Collaborative, Zebra Pictures Inc and Haus of Dada.
Her work has been shown at the Phoenix Art Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Mayworks Festival, Nuit Blanche, ReelAsian Film Festival, Long Winter, Gallery 1313, Toronto Art Fair, Buddies in Bad Times, The Black Cat Artspace, TIFF and NXNE Festival. Her ventures into large-scale performance installations include the 26-foot “Queen Of The Parade,”; a 10-foot version of The Queen was commissioned by Partners in Art, for ARTrageous In Motion. Lisa is pushing further with the Ubermarionette movement, performing in venues like Anandam’s Body Break at Theatre Passe Muraille, PROCESS at Artscape Youngplace, Buddies in Bad Times, Fringe and Rendezvous with Madness Festival. Lisa exhibited writing and photography in Yoko Ono’s ARISING exhibition at The Phi Centre in Montreal and has two photographs in a group show Shame Radiant, with East Window and Red Line Contemporary Art Centre in Denver Colorado. Lisa is proud to co-produce with Tangled Art + Disability.
Lisa has brought over 200 full-scale projects to completion over three decades, ranging from professional theatre to film & television, to large-scale art installations, immersive theatre projects and social experiments. In addition, Lisa has mentored over 30 film and art interns from various universities, colleges and art schools, many of whom are working in creative industries today.
To see more work: www.mightybraveproductions.com
BROWSE CURRENT EVENTS
No recommended events under this criteriaTHIS PROJECT IS PART OF THE RE:BUILDING RESILIENCE EXHIBITION.
Creator: Laura Shintani / A/V: Grant Padley
GENRE: INSTALLATION, INTERACTIVE
TOPIC: ACTIVISM, ADDICTION, ANXIETY, BI-POLAR DISORDER(S), BIPOC EXPERIENCE, COMMUNITY, DEPRESSION, DISABILITY, FAMILY, HARM REDUCTION, LGBTQ2S+, PSYCHIATRY, SCHIZOPHRENIA, SEXUAL ASSAULT, SEXUAL VIOLENCE, SUICIDE, TRAUMA, YOUTH
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.