ON VIEW Performance Series presented at FADO Performance Art Center, Toronto, February-March 2025

Project Description

Performance series: “On View” Feb Feb 21 - March 8, 2025

Three Canadian emerging performance artists have been invited to create a durational piece (up to 4 hours) at 401 Richmond St West’s Fourth Floor Commons.

The prompt for this series is “ON VIEW”. Artists were invited to interpret this individually, with the acknowledgement that the performance will be on view, within the 4th Floor “glass cube” meeting room space (visible from the shared fourth floor corridor) of 401 Richmond, and streamed for view (via projector) simultaneously in the adjacent gallery/studio space, called the Yachir/Berex Screening Room.

The artists are able to inhabit the space as they choose, with the caveat that a camera will be present in the room. The camera will be connected via HDMI to display in the Yachir/Berex Screening Room, so that attendees/viewers of the performance can choose to watch from outside the glass, or from within the Yachir Berex Screening Room. Note that the performance will not be streamed virtually, rather viewers will have the choice to engage with the performance from the corridor, or view from within the Screening Room.

Host organization: FADO Performance Art Center.

The On View series is intended to develop new collaborative relationships and dialogues with artists working in performance across the country referred to as Canada. Toronto is generally seen to be an inhospitable metropolis, and as housing costs, as well as operational costs rise, challenges for artists working in performance also increase. I viewed the potential for this series to be an invitation for a small number of artists (for this iteration, three in total) to create performance in the city for the first time, and to expand the offering of performance to include at least one artist not based in Toronto.

An additional consideration is the reality that, since 2020, performance for camera (via livestream, Zoom, and other social media channels) has become increasingly common, with unseen audiences potentially viewing from anywhere in the world. I seek to foster a reflection on the experience of performing for camera - for both the audience and performer.

This series is intended for emerging artists with consideration given to artists from a variety of backgrounds without lengthy history of performance in Toronto. In addition to an individual performance date, (scheduled on the following dates: Feb 21, March 1, and March 8, 2025) each artist will be invited to participate in an artist talk, open to the public.

Artists:

Kendell Yan

Camille Kiku Belair

Brigita

Performance space:

(windows face West)