A Little Culture, and some more SSP
Last night Jason and I went to The Rooms. Wednesday night is free night, so when we go it's always on a Wednesday. We took the kids last Wednesday night, and every time we go to The Rooms with the kids I always have to arrange to go back without them, because where they want to race through the exhibits and spend long hours hanging out with the video of the jellyfish, etc., I want to wander slowly through the art gallery and have time to actually take things in before being rushed on to the next event. So last night was our second trip in a week to The Rooms, this time kid-free.
One of the exhibits I wanted to linger over was "Intangible Evidence," featuring multimedia works by Michael Crummey, Andy Jones, and three other artists -- it was really the Andy Jones and the Michael Crummey pieces I wanted to see. Andy Jones' exhibit was inspired by the old house he owns in Caplin Cove, which once belonged to the Ellis family -- relatives of ours on my mom's side. The centrepiece of the exihibit is an essay written by Abby Ellis Whiffen, born 1926, about growing up in Caplin Cove; the essay is both projected on the wall with old photographs, and also hand-lettered and illustrated on a long wooden table somewhat in the style of an illuminated manuscript. I found the content interesting and the presentation absolutely beautiful.
Michael Crummey's exhibit also focuses on Newfoundland outport history -- it's a collection of old photographs and documents interspersed with poems Crummey has written as well as "found poetry" inspired by the pictures and documents themselves. Hard to describe but fascinating. The poems are wonderful, especially the "Watermark" poems accompanying images of Pentecostal baptisms in the ocean. Some of the old letters are also poems in themselves -- like the letter by the old lighthouse-keeper applying for a pension. He writes that if he doesn't get it he will "lie down and starve because no-one is going to feed me." You couldn't make this stuff up.
If you're in St. John's and haven't seen "Intangible Evidence" I highly recommend that you go visit it, especially the Jones and Crummey portions of the exhibit, because they are amazing.
The other thing I loved at The Rooms last night was a travelling installation called "Forty Part Motet" by Janet Cardiff. It's a recording of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir singing Tallis' Spem in Alium, with each individual voice being played through one of forty speakers mounted in a circle. You can walk the circle and listen to the individual voices, or sit in the middle and be surounded by the music. It was uplifting and inspiring as well as beautiful, and was enough to make me rethink my lifelong coolness towards choral music -- for the first time I found a choral piece truly moving. This installation is leaving St. John's this weekend but if you're ever in a place where it's on, I highly recommend going.
And while we're on the topic of culture, of course I have to get in more Shameless Self Promotion!! NOT ONLY am I reading at Chapters this Sunday, I"m also reading Saturday night as part of ARTFUSiON in Mount Pearl -- along with Tina Chaulk and Christine Hennebury. So if you're in the area, please come on out -- 7:45 Saturday night at Rosie O'Grady's in Mount Pearl, or 3:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Chapters on Kenmount Road. Because there really is nothing worse than a reading that nobody comes to!!
One of the exhibits I wanted to linger over was "Intangible Evidence," featuring multimedia works by Michael Crummey, Andy Jones, and three other artists -- it was really the Andy Jones and the Michael Crummey pieces I wanted to see. Andy Jones' exhibit was inspired by the old house he owns in Caplin Cove, which once belonged to the Ellis family -- relatives of ours on my mom's side. The centrepiece of the exihibit is an essay written by Abby Ellis Whiffen, born 1926, about growing up in Caplin Cove; the essay is both projected on the wall with old photographs, and also hand-lettered and illustrated on a long wooden table somewhat in the style of an illuminated manuscript. I found the content interesting and the presentation absolutely beautiful.
Michael Crummey's exhibit also focuses on Newfoundland outport history -- it's a collection of old photographs and documents interspersed with poems Crummey has written as well as "found poetry" inspired by the pictures and documents themselves. Hard to describe but fascinating. The poems are wonderful, especially the "Watermark" poems accompanying images of Pentecostal baptisms in the ocean. Some of the old letters are also poems in themselves -- like the letter by the old lighthouse-keeper applying for a pension. He writes that if he doesn't get it he will "lie down and starve because no-one is going to feed me." You couldn't make this stuff up.
If you're in St. John's and haven't seen "Intangible Evidence" I highly recommend that you go visit it, especially the Jones and Crummey portions of the exhibit, because they are amazing.
The other thing I loved at The Rooms last night was a travelling installation called "Forty Part Motet" by Janet Cardiff. It's a recording of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir singing Tallis' Spem in Alium, with each individual voice being played through one of forty speakers mounted in a circle. You can walk the circle and listen to the individual voices, or sit in the middle and be surounded by the music. It was uplifting and inspiring as well as beautiful, and was enough to make me rethink my lifelong coolness towards choral music -- for the first time I found a choral piece truly moving. This installation is leaving St. John's this weekend but if you're ever in a place where it's on, I highly recommend going.
And while we're on the topic of culture, of course I have to get in more Shameless Self Promotion!! NOT ONLY am I reading at Chapters this Sunday, I"m also reading Saturday night as part of ARTFUSiON in Mount Pearl -- along with Tina Chaulk and Christine Hennebury. So if you're in the area, please come on out -- 7:45 Saturday night at Rosie O'Grady's in Mount Pearl, or 3:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Chapters on Kenmount Road. Because there really is nothing worse than a reading that nobody comes to!!
posted by TrudyJ | 9:26 AM
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