Dayna McLeod is a Montréal-based performance artist and video maker… and she’s very funny. Winner of many prizes and awards, her work speaks to the masses with rare and powerful humour rooted in visionary feminist politics. It’s very likely that you’ve seen Dayna, but didn’t even know it: she embodies her message everywhere and in every way–from her infamous Santa Beaver to her newer (picture on the right) Monarchy Mama–her art travels far and wide.
[Interview by Mél Hogan for ArtThreat]
AT: Hi Dayna.
So, it's all about tits lately, isn't it?
Dayna: Totally.
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Posted by Mél Hogan on September 19, 2007 in
UPDATE: Wafaa Bilal has changed the URL of his Domestic Tension site to www.wafaabilal.com. A videoblog documenting the action is updated daily at www.crudeoils.us.
Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal has locked himself into a studio with live webcams for the month of May.
The public can watch him 24/7 over a live webcam; and if they choose, visitors to his website can shoot him with a remote controlled paintball gun. Log on, shoot at an Iraqi. Bilal’s installation – titled Domestic Tension - disturbingly raises awareness about the life of the Iraqi people and the home confinement they face due to the both the violent and the virtual war they face on a daily basis.
The installation takes place at the flatfile gallery in Chicago.
Bilal has become known for provocative interactive video installations. He is interested in transforming the normally passive experience of viewing art into an active participation. His goal is to engage people who may not be willing to engage in political dialogue through conventional means.
You can participate - eg shoot at him with a paintball gun - by clicking here.
To see more of Bilal’s work check out this site crudeoils.
Posted by Michael Lithgow on May 22, 2007 in
McGill University radio station (CKUT) in Montreal has been vindicated in its decision to air ‘Bang in the Nails’ by the musical performance troupe the Tiger Lillies.
Last October, after airing the song, CKUT received a complaint that the song was distasteful, hateful and "gleefully mocked" the Crucifixion. The offended Christians also argued that CKUT, in airing a song that glorified hatred, contempt and sadistic violence towards a venerated religious figure, contravened provisions of both the Broadcasting Act (the Act) and the Canadian Human Rights Act.
Here’s the remarkable thing. After conducting an internal review of the decision to air the song, the campus station acknowledged the song's controversial nature and issued an on-air apology for not having contextualized the song. In the apology CKUT also expressed its regrets for having offended any of its listeners and provided contact information for any listeners who wished to provide additional feedback.
CKUT's remarkable on-air apology was simply not enough for the offended Christians...
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Posted by Michael Lithgow on May 20, 2007 in
The Port Huron Project is a series of reenactments of protest speeches from the 1960s and '70s. Each event takes place at the site of the original speech, and is delivered by an actor to an audience of invited guests and passers-by. Videos based on these reenactments are presented in various venues and distributed online and on DVD as open-source media.
The first event in the series, Port Huron Project 1: Until the Last Gun is Silent, took place in Central Park, New York City on Saturday, September 16, 2006. This event reenacts a speech given by Coretta Scott King at a peace march in Central Park on April 27, 1968, a few weeks after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The speech, based on notes found in the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s pockets, addresses the war in Vietnam, poverty, and the power of women.
The project is inspired by the Port Huron Statement, the 1962 manifesto of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)*, a student activist organization that played a key role in the American New Left.
Originally by Rhizome.org
Posted by Michael Lithgow on May 17, 2007 in
Since its inception in 1987, MIX NYC promotes, produces, and preserves experimental media-from film and video to performance and music-that is rooted in the lives, politics, and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and otherwise queer-identified people.
This year, MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival includes for the first time an experimental music and audio component: "Bending Sound: Queer Experiments with Audio". Individuals are invited to submit proposals for performances working with sound and/or multi-media for inclusion in live audio event as part of the festival in Lower Manhattan in November 2007. More information on MIX NYC available online at http://www.mixnyc.org/.
Posted by Mél Hogan on May 9, 2007 in
I was at a bone-jittering and soul-soothing jazz event last night – the Yannick Rieu Quartet playing at La Kemia in Montreal. Each of the fingers of the keyboard player was a little miracle in motion. And then there was the horn player, the thrum of the base, the trembling of the drummer on his seat. We were transported out of our daily troubles and tragedies and into a shared space of a kind of love, the energy of music. In my revelry, I began to wonder about gender in jazz music. Perhaps it was a non sequitur, but I began to think about women in jazz, and why it is that when I am in jazz clubs, more often than not, it is men on stage. It wasn’t a complaint – the Yannick Rieu Quartet are amazing, beautiful inspired performers. But it was a question. And in my attempt to come up with some kind of answer, I discovered online archives of women jazz players, books and articles about women in jazz, and the amazing story of sax player Peggy Gilbert who died a few weeks ago at the age of 102...
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Posted by Michael Lithgow on March 22, 2007 in
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