Day 5

The place was under the Granville Street Bridge; it was our rainy weather location and it was deemed necessary earlier in the day. The space was remarkably different than the others; primarily it was the quality of the light, or lack thereof, that was in stark contrast to previous locations. Also, it was not as pretty. However, the space did lend itself to a chalk mural that Nola brought to the project. She outlined everyone in dance pose and then we filled ourselves in. Robyn followed suit, with yarn in hand, and connected us all by the hand. I, on the other hand finally found myself inspired to “install”. I must admit, my work is minimal by nature and I have resistance to decorate for decoration sake. It was the coloured cup cake papers that enticed me. They were delicate paper three-dimensional bits, and I was immediately taken by them. So, as we had all noticed the tendency for passers by to pass on by, marking as large a space between them and us, I decided to snake the cupcake papers in along the sidewalk, forcing people to engage with us, even if it is only to avoid stepping on a paper.

Unusually, I have described the place before describing my project. Hmmm, I wonder what that means? Perhaps I am being taken over by the group…something to consider. So tonight’s project revolves around art theory, art school and the tendency to wear black. I have heard the stereotype that artist’s wear black. I don’t know too many artists who do this; however I do wear black. But I’d like to point out that I have been wearing black since sometime in the mid-80s, long before I ever identified with being an artist, if that is indeed what I do now. But anyhow, I wore black tonight, and I danced to an art theory lecture, one from my MA at Goldsmiths college, something regarding the way in which the city is framed and how that can be a political thing and how representation can help to build and breakdown political agendas. The class is called Reading the City and it was given by Michael Keith sometime last September. The piece is called Self-Portrait While Mobile Dancing to an Art Theory Lecture.

I will post the self-portraits just as soon as I get them.

Day 4

Tonight was magic. Our location was the Cambie Street Bridge, and I had been looking forward to this location from the beginning. It has a narrow pathway with the direction moving in only two directions. This configuration lends itself very well to public interaction of a different kind. This nights installation was pared down in contrast to the environment my colleagues provided. Their theme was party. It wasn’t necessarily a conscious decision for the group, but in the end, that is what one would suspect. There were streamers blowing off the bridge and decoration was everywhere. My project on the other hand was comprised of my camera set up on a tripod and a sign with the phrase “take a photo”. I didn’t necessarily mean that people should take a photo with the camera as I left it. I just thought people would be less likely to steal it if they also had to take a tripod. And then I started dancing. Jamie lent me his ipod after I complained that my minidisk player, which is not mac friendly, only came with two music discs, I usually use the device to record lectures and don’t have my own personal stereo. He also set up a “Rina needs to boogie” playlist with 3hours of dancing fun. That made a huge difference! I had such a good time, my dancing felt better, I was internal rather than focusing on the passers by, and I genuinely had a good time. In fact, the time just flew. Okay four sessions and a cynic like me is hooked.

These are the photos that other people took.

Day 3

Tonight seemed hard, but in the end, it was all in my mind. The location was the community park on the corner of Richards and Davie. Now this park is long and narrow with water features at both the north and south ends. There is also a long, narrow trough connecting the two features. It appeared that we should pick one end or the other in order to maintain visible from the street. Initially I thought the north end was superior; due to the current civic strike, the water was not flowing and that left these amazing step-like stages to play with. However, by the time I rallied the troupes to have them move to the other end, the skateboarders had moved in to the space and I was intimidated into picking the other end. So our end was square shaped with a circular pool with a central raised platform where the water is usually pumped. That meant that we were not contained, and in fact, we were considerably separated, a figuration that I found discomforting, not to mention that we were surrounded by occupied benches, providing our first ready-made audience. In the one corner there were three young guys, they dressed hip and their body language was aloof even though they were obviously watching intently. I could see one of them had an ipod and I was irritated that they refused to dance. Then the most fun thing happened: someone I know joined us. He danced with vigor, and I was so happy. After the session, I asked him how he had heard about us. Apparently he was told by a mutual acquaintance and he came by to check us out because “he was on his way to get green onions anyways” And then Robyn told me that the “cool kids” would be joining us tomorrow, that they were really interested but that only one of them had an ipod on them. And it was all-fine.

Tonight I danced without a strategy. I needed time to reflect on the act itself.

This is us getting ready