Strut Your Stuff II
as it appeared in The Ottawa Xpress, October 23rd, 1997
article written by Donna Wawzonek
Please see the easy to read text version below.
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press clipping for Strut Your Stuff II as it appeared in The Ottawa Xpress, October 23rd, 1997 article written by Donna Wawzonek Please see the easy to read text version below. |
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| Battery Hens with Stuffing |
| So there are gonna be some people living like
battery hens for a week for $2,500 a pop, but there is much more to Strut Your
Stuff than cages and cash. This second annual "Film/Video Performance &
Action Art Extravaganza" offers a banquet of artistic talent and fun stuff.
With all these art forms thrown in together, there are bound to be conflicts
and crowds as well as interesting juxtapositions of media, intent and
aesthetic. Essentially, the event is a fund-raiser, but $15 for a weekend pass means two days of more art than a sane person could possibly take in. The event itself is set up as a series of performances and action art along with films and videos, framing the main events of the WIRE and Absence performances. As you no doubt have heard, Ottawa artist rob Thompson has offered $2,500 each to two people if they can withstand living in battery hen conditions, in the gallery, for a week. This performance is coupled with the equally strange work of Mississauga artist Leigh Raney, who will encase herself in a very constricting latex body bag for an hour at a time, breathing only through a straw. In other words, come for the art, stay for the possibility of death by suffocation and insanity through constriction. Raney has an assistant to monitor her condition. The two nights will be organized as a series of performances and screenings, each lasting 10 to 15 minutes. Performances include Darcy Schmidt's usual audience participatory actions. This time, he's dressing up as a camera and if you're up to the challenge, your innermost fantasies may be revealed by the Pornaroid. The Kittenling Foundation will also be performing what will no doubt be in the vein of their previous chaotic and often unnerving dramas. This one is called "Davey Croket Kan Make a Bear Do Anything!" Also on the agenda this year is "Scratch" - a multi-media [performance by Doug von Rosen, Tim Dallett, and Samir Khan. This is an artistic and musical collaboration in which, as von Rosen explains, "a dialogue between the visual and the musical" will be established, as live scratching of a film loop accompanies the live performance of a musical score. This year, IFCO has jumped on the Strut Your Stuff bandwagon and will be presenting eight of their films, including Brian McPhail's Stiffy, the touching story of a young boy's coming of age with his dead dog. John Griffith's comedy Bad Hair Day and Dan Sokolowski's gorgeous skyscape Skylight will also be shown. Not part of the IFCO presentations, but not to be missed, is Susan Terrill's video Cream Sauce. This seven minute flick is about a young woman's sexual independence but it has a dark comedic slant on par with that cult classic Parents that explored a young boy's belief that his parents were cannibals. Of course, there is more going on this weekend than can be listed here, so if you don't want to miss anything, buy a weekend pass and strut your stuff. |
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