Performance & Public Art Collaborations
ID Collective
listen to ID collective what is it?
We call ourselves “The Id Collective”. We explored society’s willingness to share how people self-identify. We also refer to ourselves as artivists and part of our role as artivists is creative use of public spaces for civic engagement and art making.
We used the principals of public performance, use of friendly public space like activist events, technology and marketing to create a comfortable space for participants of the research project.
Since the invention of the internet, shared identity has connected us to strangers from privacy of our homes and laptops. However civic engagements in our communities, community halls, and in the formal art spaces have diminished. We focused our research on the challenges of how to engage citizens in a research about self-identity in public spaces.
We have used art and discussion as a way for people to talk about identity. We use digital photographs, buttons making, signs and the internet as a way to publicise how people self-identify.
Colleen Huston, Jodie Stevens and Sharon Stevens
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L.A. Bridge Party 2003 – 2005
L.A.Bridge Party worked together as multidisciplinary and participatory performance artists:
L.A. Bridge Party = A collective of artists – Xstine Cook, Cori Stent, Penny A.P.Anderson, Sharon Stevens, L. A. = Labour and The Arts, Bridge = Bridging of issues and the communities of art and labour. Also Bridgeland/ Riverside, site of the first Mayworks Festival in May 2003. Party = Celebration of community creativity, local history and our individual and combined senses of humour.
Guernica
The May Day Parade featured Labour and The Arts’ unique interpretation of Picasso’s Guernica. This “live relief” street performance involved collaboration between members of Labour and The Arts and 17 artist and non-artist marchers.
A 10 foot, 3D canvas was designed by Penny A.P. Anderson and painted by community volunteers. This ‘painting’ was carried in segments in the MayDay March.
3 Ladles Full A court jester held court as master of ceremonies for an arts and Culture Cabaret while audience members wrote out lies on small pieces of paper – “Ralph Klein likes cream pies”. The lies were ladled out to the rest of the audience, read out and projected on overhead projector.
BINGO A community meeting space transformed into a gallery of art around the theme of social justice. Fifty old-style bingo cards were suspended in rows from the ceiling. Participants could enter into the ‘game’ and the bingo winner received a canned chicken.
Generosity Visitors to the exhibition were asked a single question “what is the greatest act of generosity someone has given to you or you have given to someone?” The answer was written on the reverse of Monopoly money and delivered, like a ballot, in a secured box.
Labelling The second performance art was undertaken with audience members at a concert by WAR PARTY – an aboriginal hip hop group. Each audience member was labelled, literally, as they entered the concert space. The labels were created spontaneously and were transcribed for all to see – using an overhead projector at the back of the concert hall. The issues of assumption, perception and reality as well as having a voice and being silenced were explored through this performance.
Picnic The final action took place during a sunny MAYworks community picnic on the prairie (an urban field) for workers and their families, activists, artists and other hungry folks. It began with the creation of red tape suits along with a continuation of the Monopoly money question. Everyone who attended was encouraged to contribute an ‘answer’ or a story related to the generosity question. These were again, deposited into a box over the course of the afternoon.
Red Tape The red tape suit people carried the box from person to person and asked them to reach in and pull out a ‘story’ to share. Participants then read out the monopoly money written thoughts into a microphone for everyone to hear. Via walkie talkie, the monopoly money written thoughts were simultaneously transcribed and projected onto the walls inside the community hall for those people who were taking part in a book fair. This served to intrigue people and lead them out to more engaging activities outdoors.
LA Bridge Party can be revived at a moments notice.
Videography
Planet Overture
Planet Overture from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
Planet Overture – impromptu performance resulting in a 2:30 video. The video represents a symbolic funeral pyre for a bruised and battered papier-mache globe that had accompanied activist events facilitated by the Arusha Centre for the past few years. In the video, a haz-mat-suited individual emerges for this globe, coats the globe in black tar-like substance before setting it ablaze. Darkly overtowned, the piece reads like a challenge against a dystopian future.
Born and raised on oil. A moralistic tale. We’ve primed the planet for destruction. Fingers are pointing at Alberta. What’s it going to take?
In the spring of 2006, The Arusha Centre planet mascot was created with many hands at many different community events. During the course of its short life it was a lantern at the Folk Festival in 2007 and was last seen at the Nightmare before Copenhagen March in October 2009. The ragged and torn and beat up world was no longer viable, so I set fire to it. Just like that. Poof.
The piece was edited and the soundtrack designed and produced by local noise musicians who go by the name darklily. Planet Overture is now a calling card for Climate Change awareness.
2009, shot during Compression Camp at EMMEDIA
Shot by Noel Begin and Micheal Welchman, edited by Micheal Welchman, soundtrack by darklily.
Altar(ed)
Altar(ed) from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
A saucy short that offers a fresh perspective on the state of marriage. A bride – jilted at the altar – becomes altered and proposes to the various landmark statues around Calgary. Ultimately she knows who it is she wants.
2007 – 3 minutes 55 seconds Co-writer, Director/Producer, camera
Starring Laura Parken
Shot on super 8, hand-processed and digitized to HD and transferring to 16 mm
Screenings: herland Feminist Film and Video Festival, May 2007, Calgary
Reel Femme Festival, May 2007, Edmonton
$100 Film Festival, 2008, Calgary
Deskblotter Daydream
Deskblotter Daydream from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
Music video shot on 16 mm film featuring music and artwork of Alberta artist Michael Betzler
2005 – 2 minutes 45 seconds Co-Producer
Screenings: $100 Film Festival, March 2005, aired BRAVO FACT!
Becoming
Becoming from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
An abstract exploration of the place of art and creation in a woman’s life. Three wise crones lead a young maiden through a labyrinth of shoes in a journey through homemaking and raising children. Spoken word by Nancy Jo Cullen and song “Within these Walls” by Anne Loree.
2003 – 3 minutes 27 seconds Concept/Director/Producer
Screenings: Calgary International Film Festival,October 2003
On tour with Prairie Tales, 2004, AlbertaScene, Ottawa, 2005
Garden Within
Interval recording and still photography of a garden growing inspired by 19th Century landscape gardeners
1998/99 – 6 hours looped Writer/Director/Producer
Exhibit & installation: DEVO Gallery in the Devonian Gardens, January, 1999, Calgary
VIGIL
VIGIL from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
Video artists’ journey through grief and mourning using the camera as viewer and protector and storyteller.
4 minutes 10 seconds Shot on Hi8 1996
Writer/Director/Producer
Screenings: herland Feminist Film Festival, March 1997, Calgary
University of Lethbridge, April, 1998
Broadcast: WTN, 1999, 2000 Shameless Shorts
Doodlebugs: The Video
Doodlebugs The Video from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
A storytelling by doodlebuggers who worked throughout the prairies in the 50s & 60s.
“Using techniques that depart from the norm of most documentary television, Stevens has recreated the atmosphere of days gone by and, as she says, ‘documented how we document ourselves’”
- Nancy Tousley, art critic
1995 – 26 minutes Writer/Director/Producer
Awards: Alberta Motion Picture Industry Award for New Work, 1996
Alberta Motion Picture Industry, Finalist for Best Script Documentary under 30 minutes, 1996
Alberta Petroleum Historical Society Multi Media Award, 1996
Screenings: Glenbow Museum, Mavericks exhibition – screening and artist talk, May 2007 (ArtPad link)
1998 Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art, Glenbow Museum & Edmonton Art Gallery, 1998
Artist-in-residence EM/Media Showcase, Glenbow Museum, 1995 Calgary
Broadcast: WTN, Change of View, March 1997
The Anger Channel
The Anger Channel from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
Six women acknowledge and ritualize their anger.
1994 30 minutes Writer/Director/Co-Producer
Screenings: International Women’s Day, Glenbow Museum, 1995, Calgary
Femspin, Alberta College of Art, 1995, Calgary
Video Graffiti
Video Graffiti from Sharon Stevens on Vimeo.
A converted newspaper box screened three short current issue videos
1991 25 minutes Writer/Director/Co-Producer
Screenings: Rethinking Media Art History & Practices, Glenbow Museum, 1996, Calgary
One World Film Festival, University of Calgary, 1992, Calgary
herland Feminist Film Festival, 1991, Calgary
PMS Hotline
Five women express their thoughts about pre-menstrual syndrome.
1991 6 minutes 30 seconds Writer/Director/Co-Producer
Screenings: Women in Arts History Month, 1996, Calgary Labour Council
Herspectives Film Festival, 1993, Calgary Board of Education
InSight Film Festival, 1992, Edmonton
Yellowknife, Fort Smith Women’s Film Festivals, 1992, N.W.T.