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OBEY
CONVENTION
VII
IN COLLABORATION WITH
OBEY
CONVENTION
VII
MAY 22–25 2014, HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA
O
BEY Convention VII, Atlantic Canada’s only festival of contemporary music and
art for the cultural wanderer, will present a unique program of freeing ideas
and experiences in the beautiful city of Halifax, Nova Scotia between May 22nd
th
and 25 . The festival will visit historic buildings, late night haunts, hidden halls and public
spaces with a collection of performances and works that challenge concepts of both
what is normal and what is wyrd.
This year’s festival headliners come from across Canada, the USA and Europe. They represent various genres and modes of musical thinking, but all of them share a penchant
for performance, expression and craft. Joining us at OBEY Convention VII will be one of
the most spellbinding indie outfits of the last two decades LOW (USA), world renowned
ambient artist TIM HECKER (Canada), Terrible Records’ rebel-rap sensation LE1F (USA),
sublime pop choralist JULIANNA BARWICK (USA), fashionista and dance club crooner
JEF BARBARA (Canada), composer and vocal contortionist MAJA RATKJE (Norway), minimal-synth darkwavers TROPIC OF CANCER (USA), dub-fi healer WHITE POPPY (Canada),
neo-classical composer NICK STORRING (Canada), pop-proggers EACH OTHER (Canada)
and over twenty more equally alluring solo artists and bands.
Part of this year’s program will be presented by OBEY Convention’s inaugural installment
of Art In Fest, a standalone festival of Canadian visual and installation works. The 2014
presenting artists are DEIRDRE LOGUE, CHRIS MYHR, OLD & WEIRD and curator ALEXIS
GRISE. Openings begin on May 20th at various galleries and alternative spaces, with
shows lasting throughout the weekend.
Taken together, OBEY Convention VII and Art In Fest will present nineteen events, more
than half of them free to an all ages public. The festivals will transpire in tandem, suffusing Halifax’s beautiful downtown and vibrant North End with an outpouring of invigorating art and music by innovators from across North America and beyond. Do not miss out
on this unusual and memorable artistic experience.
Darcy Spidle
OBEY Convention
OBEY VII 1
ARTISTS
LOW
(DULUTH, MINNESOTA)
Low has spent the last two decades delicately unfolding. The band,
founded in 1993 by husband-and-wife duo Mimi Parker and Alan
Sparhawk in Duluth, Minnesota, quickly gained a reputation as an
incredibly potent and singular band. Marked early on by qualities
that stood antithetical to the prevailing grunge craze, Low’s music
is slow, clean, compassionate and suffused with silence. Since those
formative days, the group has stretched their sound carefully, releasing one critically
acclaimed record after another, never straying too far yet rarely repeating themselves.
Whether Low is experimenting with perversely minimal drum kits, live Misfits covers,
protracted chord changes or fuzzed-out political rally cries, the core of their artwork
remains: unflinching emotional honesty. Low is a truly visionary group and one of the
most direct, consistent and refreshing rock bands of the last twenty years.
TIM HECKER
(MONTREAL, QC)
There’s no accounting for an artist like Tim Hecker. The Montrealbased noisenik has been transcending genres, live performance rituals and industry standards for the last fifteen years. His records sell
well despite being based around different systems of abstract sound
collages. His music is hard to pin down, at times veering towards
ambient gradation and other times taking on mammoth, rib-weakening washes of force. Because of the indescribable quality and nature of his work, his fans
run the gamut from black metal heads to scholars of contemporary classical. In 2013,
Hecker released his twelfth LP, Virgins, once again pushing his own limits (and therefore
the very limits of modern music) with a breathtaking dive into a more performancefocused document. While his earlier work often seeped out of the austerity of digital
processing, Virgins confronts the listener with a real world grandeur: creaks, feedback,
deep room sounds and cyclical acoustic melodies are processed to near-death and then
resurrected with a new vitality. Witnessing a modern master like Hecker perform these
pieces is sure to be a supremely physical and distinctive experience.
Photos by Zoran Orlic (Low), Jake Moore (LE1F)
LE1F
(NEW YORK, NY)
Hood futurism. Banjee. Bjarne Melgaard. These are all things that,
prior to our fervent obsession with Le1f, remained unknown at OBEY
HQ. Le1f, an openly queer, NYC rapper with a background in contemporary dance and a penchant for breakneck left turns, is avant-garde
in the truest sense. He is a fearless, total-package performer who
draws influence from a wide range of genres, eras and disciplines
to create art that is decidedly forward-thinking and totally fascinating. His shows are
impassioned and visceral: scents of night club sweat and burning sage, the feel of holy
water droplets and deep bass, purple braids swinging to slo-mo trap jams. After a recent
network television debut and a sealed deal with XL Recordings/Terrible Records, we’re
thrilled to be hosting Le1f as he shifts from internet sensation to the inevitable role of
taste-making dynamo.
ARTISTS
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OBEY VII 3
TROPIC OF CANCER
(LOS ANGELES, CA)
Over the last five years, Tropic Of Cancer has developed a strict
esthetic and an obsessive international following. The brainchild of
one entrancing Californian, Camella Lobo, the group casts its spell in
the form of monochromatic, limited-run vinyl releases and hypnotic live appearances. Sonically, the project is very specific; Lobo
& Co. build an alluring ambience through mid-tempo, synth-driven
pop music that often gets mislabeled as ‘gothic’ by the uninitiated. While the waves
are decidedly cold and the mood perfectly grim, we feel that Tropic Of Cancer is better
understood in the lineage of weighty decadence propagated by timeless creators like
Arthur Rimbaud or Factory Records. Lobo’s vocals float incandescent and free above the
blackened mood of constriction.
JULIANNA BARWICK
(NEW YORK, NY)
One of the more alluring myths of modern musical innovation is
that of the adulteration of ‘church music’: the commandeering of
divine sounds for the sake of secular exploration. The epitome of
this concept is the tale of jazz icon Buddy Bolden’s relocation of
gospel music to the streets of New Orleans at the turn of the 20th
century. While that narrative conjures notions of scandalous rhythms
and screeching horns, the story of Julianna Barwick’s music ends squarely on the other
side of the sonic spectrum. The Brooklyn-based artist builds elegant, sweeping soundscapes by looping little else than her own ethereal vocals. The result is otherworldly: a
sound undeniably steeped in Barwick’s upbringing as a choral singer in the churches of
Louisiana, yet much more expansive, exploratory and freeing. Her most recent album,
2013’s Nepenthe, recorded in Iceland with Sigur Rós’ Alex Somers, augments her singular
sound with delicate flourishes of piano and string arrangements while remaining entirely
transcendent.
Photo by Fabrice Allard (MAJA RATKJE)
JEF BARBARA
(MONTREAL, QC)
Montreal’s Jef Barbara is proof positive that the most effective
and far-reaching forms of music involve three fundamental things:
unwavering commitment, a sense of humour and an arsenal of juicy
bass lines. This glittering, pansexual nightclubber makes music so
effective and provocative that to deny it is to deny one’s most primal
instincts. Steeped in synth-pop, disco snippets and soft rock balladry,
Barbara’s bilingual catalogue combines a rich understanding of musical and cultural history with a deep-seated existential desire for catharsis. The results are an irresistible kind
of measured indulgence. Barbara is a musician in the same sense that Andy Kaufman
was a comedian: both performers take ‘the event’ as their chosen medium and proceed
to explode the possibilities of a bad joke or a struck note.
MAJA RATKJE
(TRONDHEIM, NORWAY)
Virtuosity and experimentation have been consistent themes at the
OBEY Convention. We believe that artists who expose the relativity of our accepted musical language are the cultural prophets of
our time. Norway’s Maja Ratkje has been challenging the limitations
of voice, melody, and spoken word through physical and electronic
ARTISTS
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OBEY VII 5
SUPPORTING
OBEY CONVENTION
SINCE 2007
means for well over a decade. She is one of the most revered composers in Europe’s new
school of experimentalists, and is in demand around the world for her seemingly impossible physical performances. Ratkje’s first ever concert in Atlantic Canada is sure to be
an exercise in both conceptual freedom and technical mastery that will leave our festival
audience dumfounded.
EACH OTHER
(MONTREAL, QC)
After a few years of slugging it out with a series of excellent shortrun, short-format releases, Montreal’s Each Other (a conglomerate of
some of Halifax’s finest ex-pats) released their debut LP, Being Elastic,
on a real-deal American record label in early 2014. As to be expected,
none of the band’s idiosyncrasies have been shed: wiry, plaited guitar
lines, unforeseen rhythm shifts and figurative phrases permeate the
album. With scads of brilliant ideas packed in to each and every moment, Each Other’s
big picture debut suggests that the band certainly has enough moxie to make it in the big
leagues. Oh, and their live shows? Still mind boggling.
WHITE POPPY
(VANCOUVER, BC)
Vancouver’s Crystal Dorval (aka White Poppy) calls her dub-inspired
drifter jams “experimental therapeutic pop.” The waves of sonic
healing that gently break as her low-fi gems unfold certainly offer
battered souls like ours an inner sense of tranquility and peace. Her
2013 debut LP on the excellent Not Not Fun label was one of the best
pop albums last year and put the White Poppy name on the minds
of underground pop fans everywhere. Since that time she has toured the US with OBEY
Convention alumnus Mac DeMarco, and just recently embarked on an extensive European
excursion. Vancouver always has something to offer come OBEY Convention season. We
could not be happier to welcome White Poppy to our shore for this exclusive Atlantic
Canadian performance.
TEENANGER
Halifax’s Source For Music Since 1983
CROSSS
1521 GRAFTON ST, HALIFAX (902) 422-5976
1270 BEDFORD HWY, BEDFORD (902) 835-0082
www.tazrecords.com
(TORONTO, ON)
Teenanger are too smart to be described as merely ‘snotty’. Or
rather, Teenanger are so smart that the only suitable refuge for
them is in the seemingly-eternal wellspring of snot-nosed rock and
roll from which they draw their sustenance. Early days saw the
Torontonian quartet working in a looser, fuzzier and more shambolic
vein, while their most recent output is a razor-sharp, bop-along
raucousness that includes little hints of sonic exploration and deep thinking without
becoming rootless or wimpy. An impeccable live band that has been delivering the goods
to powerchord hungry ne’er-do-wells across North America for the last seven years.
(HALIFAX, NS)
This trio makes single-minded, psychedelic doom rock. Somewhere
betwixt the legacies of Steve Albini and Syd Barret lay the fertile, slashand-burn fields of Crosss. Lead by a serene and mysterious frontman,
one Andy March, and rounded out by the exacting rhythm section of
Ryan Allen (Cold Warps) and Nathan Doucet (Heaven For Real), Crosss’
performances are notoriously mesmerizing and transcendent. Their
songs aren’t so much earworms as they are gigantic Beetlejuice-esque sandworms whose
descending jaws enshroud your body in shadows before swallowing you wholly.
ARTISTS
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OBEY VII 7
NICK STORRING
LISA LIPTON
(TORONTO, ON)
Looking over the activities listed in Nick Storring’s resume for the last
two calendar years, it’s hard to imagine that he could be merely one
person. What’s more shocking is that, in spite of such a vigorous and
enterprising pace, the work of this Toronto-based composer shows
no signs of wear: whether it’s his intricately constructed chamber
works, his detailed film scores or his striking dance accompaniments,
Storring’s work always feels pristinely realized and deeply evocative. Expect nothing short
of an emotionally fulfilling experience from this emergent mastermind.
BLACK WALLS
(TORONTO, ON)
An ashen, one-man, soft-psych monolith. Kenneth Reaume’s Black
Walls evokes a stark mood with ethereal vocals breezing through and
speckless, swelling guitars rising. Black Walls calls to mind the staggering time after a trauma in which everything throbs slowly.
THE HALIFAX RUMI ENSEMBLE
TV FREAKS
(HAMILTON, ON)
AMANDA DAWN CHRISTIE
(MONCTON, NB)
An internationally recognized experimental artist working in film,
photography, dance, and audio. Custom built electronics, shortwave
technology and site-specific installations have all figured into her idiosyncratic work as a sound maker. We’re itching to know what sort of
wizardry Amanda Dawn Christie will be unleashing at OBEY this year.
TORONTO HOMICIDE SQUAD
(TORONTO, ON)
Super colossal sounds played with dead-eyed conviction. This drums
and bass duo pound out unfaltering, lockjawed punk rhythms that
bring to mind a lobotomized Lightning Bolt. Their Pleasence Records
debut, 2013’s Nein Bullets, is as ruthless as its title suggests and their
live shows are totally lethal.
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OBEY VII
•
ARTISTS
(HALIFAX, NS)
A spiritually progressive group of performers who take traditional
Persian music as their nucleus and expand it into a tapestry of sensuous detail. Their unique approach to composition and execution is an
homage to the 13th century Sufi mystic and poet Rumi, whose innovative teachings laid the foundations for what we now understand as
classical Iranian and Afghan music.
NAP EYES
There’s no point (and probably no way) for us to explain to you what
‘punk’ means. It’s a complicated, subjective and largely antiquated
term, so we shan’t go into cultural specifics here. Instead, consider
this: Hamilton’s TV Freaks achieve something very special in the arena
in which they work (whatever you wanna call it). They are exciting. And
not just when they’re on stage expending their entire beings cathartically. Even their recordings are enthralling, blood-boiling. TV Freaks are an especially tenacious young Canadian band whose presence in any capacity is undeniably captivating.
(HALIFAX, NS)
One of Halifax’s most prodigious and insatiable artists returns to
OBEY with a new chapter in her ongoing, multi-disciplinary project,
The Impossible Blue Rose. This time around, real world events collude with filmic narratives, heart scars, social media streams and
live performance to create Greysville Meets Paradise, a disorienting,
experiential project that is as immersive as it is elusive.
(HALIFAX, NS)
This local rawk unit offers listeners a beguiling blend of unmissable
bass melodies and bozo rhythms, coated in literate lyrics the likes
of which remain endangered in this day and age. Balancing beautifully between laconic and contemplative, Nap Eyes’ songs come out
straightforward yet insist that you’ll have to go sideways.
XXX CLVR
(HALIFAX, NS)
Elusive in name and web presence alike, XXX CLVR is, in our humble
opinion, the most exciting member of rising Halifax rap crew Weirdo
Click. His mixtapes are rich with exploratory production choices,
his flow is defiantly blasé; both have our ears perked, and doing
double-takes.
MILK BAG
(HALIFAX, NS)
Together as MILKBAG, sonic collagists Liz Johnson and Anne Dahl
synthesize nebulous states in which playful illusions turn sinister and
vice versa. Muddied drum machine loops, scratched-out ambience
and Dahl’s dazed vocals overlap to create aural venn diagrams that
sound like cityscapes in a far-off cyclone.
SURVEILLANCE
(HALIFAX, NS)
As Halifax’s honorary Monctonians, Surveillance buries honey-sweet harmonies under shards of decibel bombardment. Sentimental and snarky
in turn, their songs remind us that there is a little menace in all the good
things. The jackknife inside of the dream.
SPECIAL COSTELLO
(HALIFAX, NS)
A mercurial duo comprised of one drummer, one bass player and
one mind. Fuzzed-out crescendos, soaring vocals and hot feelings
meld to create a curious kind of inverted, meditative glam rock.
WEED THIEF
(HALIFAX, NS)
Relentlessly pummeling, hoarse-throated sludge from the craggy
depths of Halifax’s hardcore caverns. Weed Thief prove time and
again that with tireless devotion and unfailing honesty, even the bleakest, blackest music can shed its skin and show itself in a new light.
DJ GOLDILOCKS
(HALIFAX, NS)
When members of team OBEY feel like going out and gettin’ down,
which admittedly doesn’t happen too often, we like to make sure the
soundtrack is just right. So when it counts, we turn to DJ Goldilocks
for her impeccable sense of atmosphere, her deep roots and her
fabulous presence.
COCO BARRACUDA
(HALIFAX, NS)
As Coco Barracuda, Halifax’s Jenny Gillespie makes pensive loop
music that walks a number of fine lines. Recalling at times the icy,
strong-footed fragility of Björk’s Vespertine, Coco Barracuda feels
like both a platform and a prison for its maker. Cathartic and tarnished, abstract yet candid, pretty and ugly. Tensions arise with an
eerie calm.
TIM CROFTS
(HALIFAX, NS)
As co-director of the improv collective suddenlyLISTEN and a parttime university music instructor, Tim Crofts is an essential element
to the cultivation of experimental music in Halifax. An incredibly proficient and effective performer, Crofts’ engagements, often involving
electronics, prepared piano and close listening, are nothing short of
mind-bending.
NO BODIES
(HALIFAX, NS)
Coupled with their clouded sounds, the name of this countrified
psych-punk band conjures two distinct images: a set of heads with
sunken, saucer-shaped eyes floating in a swirl of chromatic patterns,
or a group of urbane shitkickers decked out in nudie suits. The reverb
is just a little something to take the edge off.
ARTISTS
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OBEY VII 11
RICHARD NORMAN
(HALIFAX, NS)
In his first collection of poetry, Zero Kelvin, Richard Norman envisions astral happenings (both hypothetical and hyperreal) in order
to gain new perspectives on the disconcerting nature of the modern
psyche. Norman’s work evokes crisp images of a dreamy stomping
ground where physical and intellectual properties meld together with
surprising precision.
NICK DOURADO
(HALIFAX, NS)
An invigorating, multi-dimensional young jazzer, Nick Dourado will
be performing some palette cleansing piano improv at our Sunday
afternoon literary event, Making Notes.
MARY FAY COADY
(HALIFAX, NS)
One of Halifax’s most riveting young thespians, Mary Fay Coady will
be bringing a performance of freshly-penned material to OBEY. With
a recent surge of self-development and understanding comes a whole
new creative perspective for this award-winning playwright. Expect an
exploration of both the hardships and humour found in a change of
sexual identity performed with an exacting aptitude.
KELTIE MACNEILL
(HALIFAX, NS)
Keltie MacNeill is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living in the
Annapolis Valley. Her short fiction is plainspoken, propelled by the
acute and truthful details of the stories we all tell ourselves. While her
characters are often vexed by their metaphysical expansions, MacNeill
manages to frame them in a vivid reality, turning their exploits into
illuminating vignettes that inspire great commiseration.
DAVE EWENSON (HALIFAX, NS)
Over the past three years, Dave Ewenson, one of Halifax’s finest
recording engineers, has been moonlighting as an ethnomusicologist.
Both as a researcher and recorder, Dave has spent time developing
symbiotic relationships with local immigrant communities as well as a
number of indigenous musical communities throughout Ghana and in
Tel Aviv, Israel. Elucidating his experiences among Sudanese asylum
seekers and Ghanaian simpa drum blacksmiths, Dave will be discussing music as refuge,
communication and culture, and how translation into the digital age helps and hinders
these vital traditions.
ARTISTS
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OBEY VII 13
Halifax Regional Library presents
CONTACT MIC BUILDING WORKSHOP
WITH AMANDA DAWN CHRISTIE
Spring Garden Rd. Memorial Public Library
2:30–3:30pm • FREE
Electric Voice Records presents
TROPIC OF CANCER,
CROSSS, SURVEILLANCE,
MILK BAG, DJ BRETT WAGG
Menz Bar • 10pm–2am
$15 advance/door
TORONTO HOMICIDE SQUAD,
WEED THIEF
Bus Stop Theatre • 11:30pm–2am
(bands at 12:30am) • PASS ONLY
($10 at door if space allows)
LE1F, JEF BARBARA, XXX CLVR,
DJ GOLDILOCKS
Reflections • 9:30pm–12:30am
$19 advance/door
Weird Canada presents
TIM HECKER, NICK STORRING,
VISUALS BY JAMES GAUVREAU
Fort Massey United Church
7:00–9:00pm • $23 advance/$25 door
VEN
UES
Bus Stop 2203 Gottingen Street
Menz Bar 2182 Gottingen Street
Halifax Library 5381 Spring Garden Road
Fort Massey United Church 5303 Tobin Street
Seahorse Tavern 1665 Argyle Street
* Prices include all service fees
JULIANNA BARWICK,
HALIFAX RUMI ENSEMBLE,
DJ LINDSAY DOBBIN,
VISUALS BY JAMES GAUVREAU
Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts
7:30–9:30pm • $17 advance/$19 door
GREYSVILLE MEETS PARADISE
BY LISA LIPTON
Bus Stop Theatre • 4–5pm • FREE
SIMPA DRUMS AND MUSIC AND
DEVELOPMENT: SELF-GUIDED
MUSIC RESEARCH AND RECORDING
EXPERIENCES ABROAD WITH
DAVE EWENSON
The Khyber Centre for the Arts
3–4pm • FREE
Invisible Publishing presents
MAKING NOTES WITH RICHARD
NORMAN, KELTIE MACNEILL,
MARY FAY COADY, NICK DOURADO
Lost & Found • 1:00–3:00pm • FREE
SUNDAY
MAY 25
Reflections 5184 Sackville Street
Lost & Found 2383 Agricola Street
The Khyber Centre for the Arts 5523 Cornwallis Street
Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts 6199 Chebucto Road
TICKETS AND PASSES AVAILABLE ONLINE AND AT LOST & FOUND
EACH OTHER, TEENANGER,
TV FREAKS, NO BODIES, DJ JFM
Seahorse Tavern • 10:00pm–2am
$15 advance/door
LOW, BLACK WALLS,
VISUALS BY JAMES GAUVREAU
Fort Massey United Church • 8:00–10:00pm
$23 advance/$25 door
NAP EYES, SPECIAL COSTELLO
Spring Garden Rd. Memorial Public Library
(front steps) • 6:00–7:30pm • FREE
FRIDAY
MAY 23
REBEL GIRL ROCK CAMP
BRUNCH WITH WHITE POPPY,
COCO BARRACUDA
Bus Stop Theatre • 12:30pm–2:00pm
PASS ONLY ($10 at door if space allows)
suddenlyLISTEN presents
MAJA RATKJE, AMANDA DAWN
CHRISTIE, TIM CROFTS
Bus Stop Theatre • 7:30–10pm
$17 advance/$19 door
Halifax Regional Library presents
WYRD THE GATHERING PART 2
Spring Garden Rd. Memorial Public Library
3:30–4:30pm • FREE
SATURDAY
MAY 24
THURSDAY
MAY 22
OBEYCONVENTION.COM
MAY 22–25 2014, HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA
CONTEMPORARY MUSIC AND ART
CONVENTION
VII
OBEY
EXTRACURRICULAR
ACTIVITIES
CONTACT MIC BUILDING WORKSHOP WITH
AMANDA DAWN CHRISTIE
Learn how a contact microphone turns pressure (touch) into sound! Learn how to make
your own contact microphones out of basic and easy to find materials. Play with contact
microphones to pull interesting sounds out of ordinary objects.
WYRD THE GATHERING PART 2
Join Weird Canada for their second Wyrd the Gathering: an hour of cold tea, new age,
and discussion around ideas, barriers, and resources for DIY, emerging, and experimental
music. All are welcome! The grip is out there.
INVISIBLE PUBLISHING PRESENTS MAKING NOTES
Making Notes is our literary engagement. We’ll be presenting a wide range of carefully
curated fiction, poetry and performing arts. Each reading will be followed by a brief interlude of palette-cleansing piano improv. Tea and snacks provided.
SIMPA DRUMS AND MUSIC AND DEVELOPMENT:
Self-guided music research and recording experiences abroad with Dave Ewenson
Dave Ewenson will present recordings and music research completed in northern
Ghana and South Tel Aviv. Special attention will be placed on the neo traditional
form of drum and dance known as ‘Simpa’—the group of blacksmiths who make the
‘simpa drums’, the village ensembles who play them, and Simpa’s place in Ghanas
musical soundscape. Ewenson will also explore the idea of music as a place for displaced people and as a tool for empowerment and development.
GREYSVILLE MEETS PARADISE
Greysville Meets Paradise is an event which will host the premiere of
Greysville—Chapter VI from Lisa Lipton’s feature film project entitled:
THE IMPOSSIBLE BLUE ROSE, paired with an experimental, multimedia performance where a game is played, breaking the boundaries of time, space, idealization and a romance on the basketball
courts. When all hope is lost and the broken heart remains, Greysville
Meets Paradise will take you into a revolving world that disorients reality through a
fictionalized lens. Traveling from the basement of a self-destructive teen, to a bedroom
of true love and back to the courts again, the answer to your existential crisis will arrive
when you least expect it.
WOLF 5-LIMIT FIFTH BY CRAIG LEONARD
Wolf 5-Limit Fifth is a publication on the postponement of sonic resolution and nonidentity. The pamphlet will be distributed both in physical form and online during the
festival weekend.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
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OBEY VII 17
Art In Fest represents a distinct platform for the exhibition of contemporary art in Halifax,
Nova Scotia by some of Canada’s most intriguing artists. Provocative works shown by
emerging and established, local and national artists will engage audiences by defining
new realities, subverting expectations and describing new forms. The festival is directed
towards anyone interested in culture. Openings begin on Tuesday, May 20th at various
galleries and alternative spaces, with shows lasting throughout the weekend. artinfest.org
CHRIS MYHR
Approaches to Erg
(2014)
Opening Tuesday, May 20• Khyber Centre
for the Arts (5523 Cornwallis St.) • 6:00pm
DESCRIPTION:
Approaches to Erg is a multi-speaker
audio installation which uses surround
sound technology to generate an immersive underwater “sound map” of Halifax
Harbour and the approaches. The work
features a series of deep water sound
recordings captured above selected
shipwreck sites along a 40km stretch of
the Atlantic seafloor: from the SS Daniel
Steinmann (sunk off the coast of Sambro
Island), to the ruins of the Erg tugboat
lying in the depths of Bedford Basin near
Roach Cove.
systems. The project examines the vast
and complex network of stakeholders connected by the medium of water, as well as
the ways in which our rivers, harbours, and
bays have influenced national and regional
identities, culture and industry, mythology and the imagination. The works in
this series articulate the tension between
water as a facilitator of urban activity
and development, as well as a source of
immense destructive power.
Chris Myhr would like to thank the Centre
for Art Tapes, as well as the local community of harbour enthusiasts, divers, and
historians for their generous contributions
to both the research and production of
this work. A special note of gratitude to
Bob Chaulk, Dana Sheppard, Robyn Mitchell, Sandy Saunders, Jesse Mitchell, and
Skipper Dave Gray.
BIOGRAPHY:
The captured sounds are arranged into
a 10-minute sonic narrative (informed by
the history and geography of the harbour)
which moves the listener gradually along
this trajectory of underwater recordings,
suggesting periodic patterns of stability
and instability, crisis and recovery, ebb
and flow.
Approaches to Erg is part of an interdisciplinary body of work entitled Point Line
Intersection: In and Around Urban Waters,
which explores the interrelationships
between city dwellers and natural water
Chris Myhr (born 1973) is an interdisciplinary media artist based in London, Ontario.
His studio practice moves between media
installation, sound-based work, video and
photography. His current area of interest
is in responsive electronic systems, and
the generation of live listening environments. Much of the work deals with that
which the artist refers to as the “soundspace-body dynamic,” the ways in which
the natural and built spaces we inhabit,
together with our acquired and conditioned approaches to listening, shape aural
experience and perception.
ART IN FEST
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OBEY VII 19
Myhr holds a degree in English literature
from Simon Fraser University, is a graduate
of the Multidisciplinary BFA program at the
University of Lethbridge, and completed
MFA studies at NSCAD University. His work
as an artist and curator has been exhibited
nationally and internationally; he currently
teaches in the Department of Visual Arts
at Western University. He was awarded the
Roloff Beny Foundation Award in Fine Arts
(2006), a SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship (2008), and was recently selected
to participate in the 2013 Acoustic Networks project commissioned by the Centre
for Art Tapes in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
DEIRDRE LOGUE
Enlightened Nonsense (1997-2000)
Opening Wednesday, May 21 • Academy
Building (1649 Brunswick St.) • 6:00pm
DESCRIPTION:
Patch, 0:40, 2000,
colour, 16mm film.
Here the artist uses a small
piece of stitched leather from
a baseball to ‘try’ on a scar.
H2Oh Oh, 2:00, 2000,
B&W, 16mm film.
H2Oh Oh is a battle between
under and over, on and off,
in and out. As the artist
repeatedly submerges her head into a bucket of cold
water, her endurance is revealed as a dangerous and
familiar pattern.
Moohead, 1:00, 1999,
colour, 16mm film.
Focused on the acute pain of
childhood humiliation, this
work’s unsettling visual and
audio combinations create a sinister atmosphere of
mistrust and embarrassment.
Road Trip, 1:00, 2000,
colour, 16mm film.
The artist explores a small
patch of the rural Arizona
landscape up close.
20
OBEY VII
•
ART IN FEST
Always a Bridesmaid,
Never a Bride of
Frankenstein, 2:00,
2000, colour, 16mm film.
This is a work in which invisible wounds are made hyper visible. Using a felt pen,
the artist reveals them, already sealed and covering her
entire body.
Tape, 5:00, 2000, colour,
16mm film.
Tape explores entrapment.
Alone on the horizon, the
artist tapes the circumference of her head. Like preparing a package for shipping,
she works with determination to ensure all surfaces are
covered. She occasionally tears the tape, accidentally
losing the ends here and there. As she takes the time to
find them, tension mounts.
Scratch, 2:00, 1998,
colour, 16mm film, found
footage.
This work is a study in understanding the entanglements
of gender. Described as invading, difficult and repetitious,
the artist struggles to break away from its confines. works that were each shot, hand-processed and edited within a total of approximately one week. Each beginning with a
specific gesture, the works express both
the physical manifestation of different
states of being and a desire to understand
one’s relationship to our physical and psychological limitations.
BIOGRAPHY:
Deirdre Logue was born in 1964 in Scarborough, Ontario, and currently lives and
works in Toronto. She holds a BFA from
the Nova Scotia College of Art And Design
and an MFA from Kent State University. Her performance-based film, video
and installation works are self-portraits
uniquely located between comfort and
trauma, self-liberation and self-annihilation. By utilizing domestic objects
and spaces to contrary ends, her works
capture gesture, duration and the body
as both subject and object. Her practice is
not production or ‘master narrative’ driven
nor is it dependent on the use of tools
typically applied in conventional film and
video—rather her work is made in a direct
move away from an industry model and is
expressly personal, emotional and political.
Over the course of her career, Logue has
been prolific and steadfast in her commitment to the moving image and has
produced over 60 short films and videos
as well as innumerable video art installations. Recent solo exhibitions of her
award winning work have taken place at
Open Space in Victoria, Oakville Galleries, the Images Festival in Toronto, the
Berlin International Film Festival, Beyond/
In Western New York, YYZ and at articule
in Montreal. She was a founding member
of Media City, the Executive Director of the
Images Festival, Executive Director of the
CFMDC and is currently the Development
Director at Vtape. Logue also directs the
F.A.G Feminist Art Gallery with her partner/
collaborator Allyson Mitchell.
Sleep Study, 2:00,
2000, colour, 16mm film,
super 8.
Sleep Study was recorded
during a medical examination
to determine the cause of the artist’s sleeplessness.
Intercut with super 8 footage of the artist as a child,
this work proposes a direct correlation between the
events of the past with the problems of the present.
Milk and Cream, 2:00,
2000, colour, 16mm film.
Not for the lactose intolerant,
this work asks the viewer to
think about desire through
concepts of excess and the abject.
Fall, 2:00, 2000, colour,
16mm film.
Fall is practicing the falls, the
failures, the injuries,
the dying and the death.
All works are part of Enlightened Nonsense—1997-2000 (22 min. B&W 16mm
film, sound), 10 thematically related film
@fieldguidehfx \ fieldguidehfx.com
2076 GOTTINGEN STREET
OLD & WEIRD
Opening Wednesday, May 21 • Lost & Found
(2383 Agricola St.) • 8:00pm
DESCRIPTION:
The members of Old & Weird will be exhibiting new art work and playing a DJ set.
BIOGRAPHY:
Hannah Guinan, Allison Higgins and Danika
Vandersteen met seven(!) years ago while
attending NSCAD University collecting
BFAs. For the past three years they have
freed themselves together through the
music project Old & Weird, playing pervy,
jingle-jangle, art-rock pop from up their
guitar butts. This will be their first visual
exhibition together. See these women blur
the lines of rock and art with Ronnie Wood
as guiding light.
A CLAIMABLE LIP STIR
Opening Thursday, May 22 • Parentheses
Gallery (2180 Gottingen St.) • 6:00pm
DESCRIPTION:
A group exhibition curated by Alexis Grisé.
All works are by NSCAD students in their
final semester.
BIOGRAPHIES:
Lee Roth was born in
Edmonton, Alberta. His work
involves arranging consumer
products into new aesthetic
configurations that allow for
a reexamination of the familiar.
He has studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design
in Calgary, Alberta and at Emily Carr University of Art
and Design in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a
BFA from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and
is now living and practicing in Montréal, Quebec. He was
recently a finalist for the 2014 Starfish Student Art Award.
Josie Guenther, born in 1989 in
Boissevain, Manitoba, predominantly
works in printmaking, textiles, and
printed matter. She is currently finishing
her interdisciplinary degree at NSCAD
University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In her printmaking
practice, Guenther exhausts one technique to its boundaries
in order to find something else others could miss while
maintaining a minimalist aesthetic. In her most recent
graduation show entitled Play Back she screen printed dye
on fabric to create large repeating patterned pieces,
expanding on the idea of text as pattern. Her work includes
graphic design mixed with hand-done elements.
In addition to her recent graduation exhibition at the
Anna Leonowens Gallery (2014), she has exhibited in
print-related shows at NSCAD and the Craig Gallery in
Dartmouth. She has also participated in print exchanges
within NSCAD University as well as within the University
of Tennessee Knoxville.
Beck Gilmer-Osborne
is a self-identified queer, dyke,
fag, feminist, non-binary trans*
activist and artist currently
living in Halifax. Their work is
multidisciplinary and crosses a spectrum of performance,
video, sculpture, photography, and printed matter. Focusing
on tension, absence, and power in relation to gender
dichotomies, their work endeavours to explore, illustrate,
and interrogate the potentials of the body to serve as both
tools for gender deconstruction and sites of inquiry.
Their performance mode is continuous and fully
integrated into their everyday life; as a non-binary trans*
person, their physicality is always on the line, always
under the surveillance of dominant culture. Their performative works, mediated through video, attempt to reclaim
some of that power while simultaneously communicating
the vulnerability they feel as a trans*person, making it
engaging, complicated, and humorous.
Alexis Grisé was born in
1988 in Winnipeg and has been
living and working in Halifax for
the past four years. He holds a
BFA from NSCAD University and
is currently awaiting graduate school admissions decisions.
Alexis’ work explores the rift between image and objectmaking present in photography, and the boundary between
surface representation and content. This year he exhibited
his thesis exhibition at the Anna Leonowens Gallery in
Halifax which included work from his time spent on
exchange at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York
(2013). His work was recently included in a group exhibition
at the Cooper Union Gallery in New York City (2013); as well,
he curated a group exhibition at the Friends of Freiheit
Gallery in North Adams, Massachusetts (2012).
ART IN FEST
•
OBEY VII 23
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