“The Collage Party” serves as a platform for people of all backgrounds and artistic levels to come together in a group setting and experience the benefits of exercising their creativity through collage making. “The Collage Party” is accessible to all. With collage, you respond to images, as opposed to starting with a blank page like with painting and drawing. One does not have to know ‘how to draw a straight line’ with collage. The objective with “The Collage Party” is to provide participants with a platform to express themselves and exercise their creativity in a supportive, social environment.

Currently based in Toronto, Paul Butler is a multi-disciplinary artist with an interest in artist- driven projects that challenge current art world models. His practice includes: hosting “The Collage Party” – a touring experimental studio established 1997; directing the operations of “The Other Gallery” – a nomadic commercial gallery focused on overlooked artists’ practices; founding “The Upper Trading Post” – an invitational website that facilitates artist trading and initiating “Reverse Pedagogy” – a traveling, experimental residency. He has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; White Columns, New York City; Creative Growth Art Centre, Oakland and La Maison Rouge, Paris.

The first 25 people who sign up for The Collage Party Zoom event get a collectible Collage Party pencil case with necessary tools to collage with. They are available for free curbside pickup at 651 Dufferin Street between the hours of 10AM-9PM, October 15-25.

Ectoplasm would leak from psychic mediums during photography sessions as a manifestation of the spirit entering the physical world. Expulsion often caused great pain to the psychic mediums creating it. At times the substance was solid and would take the shape of a face or body parts, while at other times it was fluid and contained imagery of spirits or memories. Ectoplasms is a multi-channel video installation that depicts the decay and dripping of photographs. The images initially seem static, but they begin to move around the viewer in ways that defy gravity and orientation. As the viewer tries to place the imagery, they grapple with its disappearance.

Megan Moore is a Montreal-based media artist. Through the manipulation of personal and public archives, her immersive photo and video installations offer reflections on memory, grief and the photographic medium. Megan has exhibited in Canada (FOFA Gallery, Orillia Museum of Art and History, Toronto Media Arts Centre) and Europe (Maison de la Photographie, France, Ulster Museum, UK.) In 2015 she won the Montreal Emerging Photographer award. Megan holds a BFA in Photography from Concordia University and an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Guelph.

Images of the Ectoplasms installation in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Henry Chang

Artist Panels

October 19-25, Various times, Instagram Live

Join artists over Instagram Live throughout the run of Re:Building Resilience! Interact with different artists in real-time as they walk you through their artwork, provide impromptu performances, and answer your questions. Follow @workmanartsto on Instagram to get notified when we go live. 

Post-Part is a room within a room installation that draws on the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Barbara Ehrenreich, the modern collage movement and the RGB innovation of Carnovsky. Post-Part re-imagines a 19th century-style brocade wallpaper pattern incorporating “hidden” illustrations, collage elements and sensor-triggered audio, to bring to life the experience of postpartum mood disorders, including postpartum psychosis. Handheld cellophane filters reveal collage compositions hidden within the wallpaper, and the viewer’s proximity to the wall triggers audio recordings of women’s testimony as well as “cures” prescribed in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Longernin Collective formed to create the installation work, Post-Part. Drawing on combined experiences in illustration, animation, writing, film, collage and art therapy work, the members’ individual works have been exhibited, published and screened to audiences locally and globally.

Longernin Collective would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.

Images of the Post-Part installation in Re:Building Resilience:

Photos by Franco Pang & Paulina Wiszowata

Join multidisciplinary artist and creative writer, Hanan Hazime, for an online poetry workshop and art installation. Instead of psychiatric medicine, participants  of “The Mad Poetry Apothecary” will be prescribed creative prompts that encourage mental wellness. Participants will be guided through the creation of mixed-media poetry postcards and given the opportunity to virtually showcase their work. Those who would like to participate in the virtual art installation but cannot attend the online workshops have the option of submitting their poetry postcard via email. All levels of writing and artistic skills are welcome. Folks with lived experience of mental health and/or addiction issues are highly encouraged to contribute their voices to this project.

Click here to view the virtual Mad Poetry installation.

Hanan Hazime is a multidisciplinary artist, creative writer, community arts educator and writing instructor living in Tkaronto/Toronto. She also identifies as a Lebanese-Canadian Muslimah Feminist and Mad Pride Activist. Through her intersectional and interdisciplinary artwork, Hanan aims to push boundaries, question arbitrary binaries, dispel stigmas and shatter stereotypes. Her primary mission as an arts educator is to provide accessible arts education to marginalized communities with a special focus on crafting safe, empowered spaces for Muslims, individuals with mental health challenges, folks with disabilities and BIPOC youth to discover and enhance their writing and art skills.

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

Theatre artists make and see theatre to challenge and be challenged, to share and listen, to ask and be asked questions that might not be asked elsewhere. We sometimes tell stories that might be difficult for others to hear. We can hit a nerve, touch a deep wound, or flick a switch that triggers old memories, reactions or feelings. 

So how do we take care of our audiences when we offer sensitive material? How do we take care of the performers who reach deep into their souls and put them on stage, show after show? How do we ensure everyone else on our team is ok? And whose responsibility is it?

Playwright, actor, producer and instructor Lorene Stanwick shares some strategies and ideas to navigate these sometimes-murky waters using Broken Branches, her play that explores the issue of sibling abuse, as a guide.

Artists Hanan Hazime, Alexandra Caprara, Raechel Kula and Moncef Mounir each read from their works, followed by a discussion with moderator Andrea Thompson about the restorative power of words, art and performance.

Andrea Thompson is a poet, novelist, editor and educator. In 2005 her spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award and in 2019 her album, Soulorations earned her a League of Canadian Poets’ Golden-Beret Award for Excellence. She’s co-author of Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, and author of the novel, Over Our Heads. “A Selected History of Soul Speak” is the working title for her next collection – due to be published by Frontenac House in autumn, 2021.

www.andreathompson.ca