creative forces

Blog # 133...September 2022

I like to think that rue du Quatre-Septembre on the right bank in Paris recognizes my birthday. It also commemorates the founding in 1870 of the Third French Republic that lasted until 1940 - that's only seventy years...I'm still around.

Birthdays bring reflection. Maybe that’s what inspired artist Ed Pien's current show - Present: Past/Future at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Although he'd never been to Cuba (born in Taipei, raised in Toronto) and didn't speak Spanish, he was approached by guest curator Catherine Sicot who had long admired his work. She'd visited Cuba and fallen in love with the country and the people (as many of us have) and felt they would collaborate well to explore her ideas about Cuban society. 

Starting in 2014, Ed visited San Agustin, a middle class neighbourhood close to Havana, twice a year interviewing on video 13 elders in their homes and gardens as they went about their routine activities.

They spoke of many things, ambitions, memories of dances and parties, feeling about aging (one was 104!) and...the revolution - life both before, when they felt exploited by capitalism, but didn't have enough to eat and after, when some things were better, others became worse. 

Here's Ed Pien sitting amongst pieces of furniture from the apartments of the elders - in the background is a mural of a typical building in St Agustin. 

I sat in the same chair when I visited the show.

Two idols

Dionne Clementina Anyo Reyes

Several of the elders passed away during the project and Pien chose to mark their deaths by panning around their empty houses or apartments. We were moved to tears, feeling we'd lost friends we'd come to know on the screen and remembering the many Cubans we'd met over the years.

Another Torontonian, Haley McGee's show Age is a Feeling attracted lots of attention at this summer's Edinburgh Fringe. A one  hander, McGee observes life from her perch high on a life guard's chair. The audience gets to choose each vignette  that dives into our relationship with mortality at various ages and stages of life. There's a chance that she might bring the show to Toronto, we'll be watching for it

Ed Pien and Haley McGee are unique artists using their particular form to explore our world as we move through it over time.

We've all had different experiences over the past couple of years and two groups that I love are treating us to a look at different views from different folks.

The Secret Handshake and The Friendly Spike have both been supporting people with mental illness for many years by making a range of art forms available. Here's their latest initiative...

Reading of POEMDEMIC! a collection of poems based on lived experience of Covid on September 20 and 27 at 7pm EST..register at friendlyspike@primus.ca.

So, there's lots going on that's good as well as too bloody much that's not, be sure and take some time for the good stuff and I'll be back with more in October.