Art and Artists of African descent in Canada. The creative process,Exhibitions,Ideas and new thoughts on Art as it intersects with community.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
the ancestors
I was directing a play a fantastic work by a very talented actor writer, Cassandre mentor. it was called "Blue colored girl" ( yes we know in Canada and other British places we spell it coloUred ) in it she mentions being called by the ancestors, even though she cannot identify them, she knows they are constantly in her consciousness. There are many similarities between her play and the one i wrote a decade and a half ago. and i was and have been for the past two years constructing these ancestor pieces, they have gone from one large piece of wood to three imagine if you will the painting is the "house" i'm going to have to reconstruct the pieces as one in another crazy assembly, i will meanwhile here is the new ancestors of montreal.
this time i spread them out. harder to destroy.
very late
NEW LIGHT
Whats good about blogs and journals,or any writing of a personal nature? Realizing when I'm stuck in a loop. Is creativity linked to a Mania ? Because every so often I find I'm going back to the same point starting over again. relearning, being scared,getting over fear, creating then falling back into the process. That's it! It's my process. it too damn tiring. Time to ( yes, i'm gonna say it) start again, with a new light. Audre Lorde said (I'm paraphrasing) the difference between pain and suffering ; Pain is going through trauma and unsing the experience to change, knowing that you have been through the experience. Suffering is not using the experience for change,but repeating the trauma over again and again.
Thanks to; the nice poster folks who glued my work up rather than tear it down(which happened to the other work i put up if you go to grumpy's on Mckay in Montreal.
and big big thanks to Cassandre Mentor and Rabbit, who are performing "short and sweet" at the end of the month. Cassandre is a great actor Rabbit is a wonderful writer with a fantastic reading voice.
Whats good about blogs and journals,or any writing of a personal nature? Realizing when I'm stuck in a loop. Is creativity linked to a Mania ? Because every so often I find I'm going back to the same point starting over again. relearning, being scared,getting over fear, creating then falling back into the process. That's it! It's my process. it too damn tiring. Time to ( yes, i'm gonna say it) start again, with a new light. Audre Lorde said (I'm paraphrasing) the difference between pain and suffering ; Pain is going through trauma and unsing the experience to change, knowing that you have been through the experience. Suffering is not using the experience for change,but repeating the trauma over again and again.
Thanks to; the nice poster folks who glued my work up rather than tear it down(which happened to the other work i put up if you go to grumpy's on Mckay in Montreal.
and big big thanks to Cassandre Mentor and Rabbit, who are performing "short and sweet" at the end of the month. Cassandre is a great actor Rabbit is a wonderful writer with a fantastic reading voice.
moving and moving on.
It occurs to me the more i think i know the less i most likely do. this doesn't even stop me from thinking i do know more. Its age or something , the idea that i lived this long it has to be skill and not just by the grace of god, luck or other unquantifiable experiences. I have a new collection of work. some of it a repeat. like for instance back in the day in ottawa i set up some work in the parks and on the street one group that i was really happy with was called the "ancestors" large pieces, four sculptural bits which called me to daughters of the dust and recollection of seeing African scultpures( thank you Althea knight, who always is an inspiration and motivator) so once again i set them out on the lawn so to speak this time in montreal along the lachine canal. and paintings on St. Antoine,( they were quickly removed by poster people,, damn you ! don't you know art man!
i still am figuring the documentation bit. theses are the inside versions.
i still am figuring the documentation bit. theses are the inside versions.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
collective reason
Collective creation blog #2
As we move through this creative space, I realize not
only are we talking in terms of space we share publicly, we have to think in
terms of space in time in space and time. We are a group of people who span
many years and have lived in different countries, because of this we see space
and time differently. Even on a simple level, in Montreal there is an Anglo
space and a French space, As gender we occupy space differently ( take a look at how much space some men occupy on a bus compared to
some women) go to a public event and see the lines of women wanting to utilize the
washroom, while men, So, who is afforded space? think of People with disabilities
who cannot participate in activities because of accessibility. I started thinking
of this while listening to CBC this morning, they were talked about the
segregated Canada, there were Indian hospitals, towns like Dresden Ontario which would
not allow black people to eat in restaurants or use bowling lanes etc. and who
could forget viola Desmond being removed from the cinema in Nova Scotia. I
think how older folk look at and use public space, I certainly do look at it differently from
the younger participants. In Quebec women could not
even acquire a bank account, lease a house or get hydro hook up without the signature of a male.. so an
exercise, as marginalized folk, either by gender, race, sexuality, religion,disability
etc;
Could you jump in a time travel machine and go randomly to anywhere in
the past? As for that matter we can never tell what the future has for us. As for the other space, cyberspace, I have to look to the young, I have to
look for them because they are too busy texting or tweeting or face booking to
look up. In many ways they share public space in a greater way over continents,
time zones, semi publicly in places and in languages I can’t even begin to
comprehend. In that sense we have to
talk about what is private in cyberspace? and how can they be so private in public?
I am cheating I think because this will be posted on our collective site which I urge you to go to
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