Friday, April 9, 2010
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Thank You Margaret! You Rock!
And Thanks Everybody! I learned so much from ALL of you!
Connie Freitas
Daily/Ongoing Intermittent Practice
I take a drink, such as a refreshing iced tea in hot weather or hot chocolate in cold weather, to a public location, and I invite random people to join me as I sit with them and participate in a discourse that includes us sharing our lives, past histories, wishes and plans.
I document our random meeting by taking a photograph, and giving them the address to a blog (that shall be put up this summer).
This piece is inspired by the negotiation of private and public boundaries in contemporary urban life, and also affirms the individual experience among the anonymous.
C.V.
connie_freitas@hotmail.com
Education
2009-present Emily Carr University
Film Video and Integrated Media Program
Bachelors Degree
2006-2009 Capilano University
Studio Arts Program
Diploma
2000-2003 College of New Caledonia
University Transfer Liberal Arts
Film/Video
Porque (2010) - Performance Installation
Emily Carr University
Transference (2010) - Performance
Emily Carr University
Vessel (2010) - Performer
Director: Celia Goodwin-Cobb
Emily Carr University
Diverge (2010) - Director
Emily Carr University
Fred (2009) - Co-Director/Camera
Co-Director: Celia Goodwin-Cobb
Emily Carr University
Confluence (2009) - Director
Volunteer/Assistant
2008-present Recurring summer position
as assistant to artist Toni Latour
editing video/sound/photoshop
photographer, studio assistant
framing assistant
seemstress
Broken / Intervals Festival
During discussion internet chat took place. Intermittant pauses in speech and subsequent switching of chairs took place. Discussions of performances to take place, inspired by fragility of time and space.
Performances by Molly Kreppel, Emilio Rojas, Connie Freitas, Tomorrow Rising, Genesis y. m.,
and G Amani.
Molly danced with agression to a children's song that was looped and double time.
Emilio addressed recording and perception of time by wrapping and guiding audiences with cassette tape.
I performed in a video installation that involved the wrapping/unwrapping of an alarm clock/facsimile. I attempted to comment on wasted time, and the intangible nature of memory and time.
Tomorrow Rising painted a gallery wall white for the entire length of the Festival. She covered spatial elements of architecture thereby "covering history".
Genesis sanded a 24 by 42 cm rectangle on a white wall and implemented a shutter light in her performance. She dealt with time relative to sun as light source, and the passage of time.
G read feminist literature while dressed in underwear and a long veil, as audience members threw, dripped, smashed tomatoes on her. She comments on patriarchy and suppression in a variety of forms.
Dumb Type
Dumb Type Wikipedia Info:
Founded in 1984, the artist collective Dumb Type is based in Kyoto, Japan.
Members are trained in varied disciplines, including visual arts, theatre, dance, architecture, music composition and computer programming. Their work ranges across such diverse media as art exhibitions, performances, audiovisuals and publications.
Dumb Type is known for portraying a dark, cynical, and humorous world in which technology is a way of life--if not necessarily a welcome one. In a 1990 interview in High Performance, the late Teiji Furuhashi, one of Dumb Type's founding members, described their work as political in nature. "Something Japanese theater never does. Japanese audiences don't want to see that. They want to avoid it. They just want entertainment. Yes, I think we should always have a political view. We should represent that this is Japan." Notable in a country plagued by political apathy, the group has played the unpopular role of AIDS activist, organizing symposia and other events, motivated in part by the fact that Furuhashi died of AIDS in 1995.
While based in Kyoto, Japan's ancient capital, Dumb Type is oriented more to the global than the local, the contemporary over the traditional. Dumb Type members claim that Japanese art movements have had little influence on their work. Furuhashi explained that the core group--Furuhashi, Toru Koyamada, Yukihiro Hozumi, Shiro Takatani, Takayuki Fujimoto and Hiromasa Tomari--began working together in 1982, while still students at Kyoto University of Art and Design. "We were frustrated artists, and wanted to start creating something new with our skills. Most of the time we spent discussing society or whatever, not specific art things. When someone had an idea it would be presented on a piece of paper. If the group was interested, we made it come true. At first the idea would be really open, then gradually it became something very specific. In that way, we're really democratic. Dumb Type is a collaborative group; we don't want a king."
Their work has been exhibited and performed at notable venues internationally.
Here are some youtube links to some of their works:
True
Memorandom part 1
Memorandom part 2
Performances (Durational/Relational/Ritual)
Cale - audience binds/unbinds his wrists as he is crouched down. (duration/relation)
Katie - sings (beautifully) a prayer for Haiti
water in vessels
stones thrown
washes/cleansing
Genesis - spills milk down grid staircase as Tomorrow runs down it.
impromptu - addresses performative happenstance in daily life.
Silhouette/Shadow
Katie did a slide/hand gesture presentation using colourful slides and a mixture of happy, active, and profane gestures. Audience was not only viewing slide/shadow presentation, but also her shifting movements on the grounds as she adjusted for each gesture's meaning/performance.
Emilio, Genesis, Tomorrow, and Pierce:
cooing, cahing,
luxurious - sensuous
enveloping confining smothering white sheet
bound performers
candlelight - strong handheld light/shadows
audience bound/covered
sanctity - instinct.
Cale, Molly K, G:
large silky screen - theatrical
beatings frail victim survival
evaporation unrecognizable alien-like
Sssssilencing - staning tall!
G - Air Guitar Masturbator!
Bold - Struggle - Voice
Quan, Molly C, Lisa:
Moon inspired shifting light - life giving!
Orb - Chasing light/life - Whirling, stirring, Life.
Little death - delicate - playful fantasy