Three people sit on different levels of a set of outdoor wooden stairs.
Monique Blom (from left), Alasdair Rees and Michel Boutin and are the artists making new work through Remai Modern's live artist project. Photo: Carey Shaw.

Checking in with the Sustained Artist Project

 

In June 2021, Remai Modern launched a new pilot project to work with three local artists over a 10-month period. We checked in with the participating artists Monique Blom, Michel Boutin and Alasdair Rees, about how the project has evolved and what they are working toward.

Alasdair Rees

“Recently I’ve also started memorizing some of the text. Memorization is a big part of my editing process; I think the intimacy it creates brings out meaning that can be hidden on the page.”

A photo of Alasdair Rees sitting outside on a summer day
Photo: Honey Cut Studios

Has your project or focus changed since you began? If so, how?
If not, how has your initial focus developed?

When I first set out on developing this performance, I was allowing the theme of connection to guide my exploration and inquiry. My work is always inspired by my experience, so I wanted to spend some time thinking about and creatively processing the cycles of isolation and reconnection that have characterized the past couple years. While this is still a central theme of the work, my inspiration has strayed into other territory as well. I’ve been reflecting a lot on cycles in general and, by extension, circles and orbits. I’ve also been watching my research (I’m a literature grad student) slowly bleed into the writing I’m producing for this project – that cross-pollination or pollution effect is something that’s always fascinated me (in my own work and the work of others) and has taken on much more significance lately than I was anticipating.     

What are your goals for the remainder of the project?

I’m currently finalizing the set design and costuming for the performance, while continuing to make tweaks to the script and event scores. Recently I’ve also started memorizing some of the text. Memorization is a big part of my editing process; I think the intimacy it creates brings out meaning that can be hidden on the page. The script has been evolving a lot through this process over the last month, so my main goal is to see it through to its final iteration.  

Exchanging with Michel, Monique, and [curator] Troy [Gronsdahl] has been a really enriching experience. I have a huge appreciation for the three of them, and they’ve all significantly shifted my way of thinking about performance, expression and creativity. It’s also been a true pleasure to interact with the gallery staff and community by participating in the events that have led up to the presentation of this final performance. Getting the chance to share my work in person at the launch of my book, Mon écologie, last summer and the Looking Up event themed around Zachari Logan’s Ghost Meadows was such a treat after having spent so much time existing solely through my webcam.  

Photo: Carey Shaw

What have you learned about your art practice since starting this project?

The sustained artist project has been an opportunity for me to go deeper into the performance aspect of my practice than I ever have in the past. With the bulk of my training and experience being in the literary arts, I’ve found myself reading dramatic writing in a way I haven’t previously – Beckett’s plays have been a huge inspiration to me to during this period in that, to my mind, they ask questions about the relationship between textual or symbolic worlds and the “real” world we inhabit. I’m excited to show what kind of form I can give my work in the context of a longer, more produced performance.

What can you tell us about your final performance later this year?

The final performance is formatted like a show, with distinct set-pieces or scenes that come together to create a sort of immersive representation of my thought process. The show incorporates elements of lecture, story, verse, and dialogue; I wanted to explore some of the different shapes that speech can take in an effort to adopt multiple, evolving perspectives on a shared core of reflections. These textual components are accompanied by varied performance, sound, and video complements that give the show its texture while amplifying some of the more subtle thematic elements. 

Monique Blom

“I want my audiences to stand between the worlds of mythos and rationality to become the embodiment of the interconnectedness that is the act of survival we encounter in our lives.”

Artist Monique Blom picking flowers outdoors on a sunny day
Photo: Honey Cut Studios

Has your project or focus changed since you began? If so, how?
If not, how has your initial focus developed?

My focus has not changed throughout this project but rather expanded to include the transpersonal experiences involved in synchronicity. I’ve continued to expand my explorations of the relationship between labour, grief and the relationship to the land. This work has led me to further investigate the archetypal feminine as a model of transformative change.

What are your goals for the remainder of the project?

My goals for the remainder of this project remain rooted in investigation and documentation of these fundamental, elemental and essential relationships as they form our interconnected experience.

My intentions leading up to my final performance are to learn the co-constructive properties of building with the land as my mentor and provide an experience of both beauty and loss for the participants of the performance.

What has been the best or most interesting part of the project so far?

The best part of this project has been the gifts of an extended period of focused time, the support of Troy Gronsdahl (as well as many of the incredible Remai Modern staff) and the opportunity to integrate all my roles into one focused experience. This has allowed me to learn that my practice is truly rooted in my lived experience. My work strives to evoke the permanence of change and embody the impermanent nature of liminal spaces. I want my audiences to stand between the worlds of mythos and rationality to become the embodiment of the interconnectedness that is the act of survival we encounter in our lives.

What can you tell us about your final performance later this year?

My final performance later this year explores the complexity of grief through the co-construction of an earth structure. This structure will be offering space for the public to come together to collectively explore their relationship to the land and their values of labour deeply rooted in family experience as part of an ongoing process of reciprocity and land reclamation. I would like to offer participants the opportunity to connect, partner and be nourished by grief with an emphasis on mapping the recovery of relationship and harmony. 

Michel Boutin

After 15 years as an artistic director, I’ve had to relearn what it means to be an independent artist. My current work thrives on spontaneous uncertainty.

Michel Boutin wearing a mask outdoors
Photo: Carey Shaw

Has your project or focus changed since you began? If so, how?
If not, how has your initial focus developed?

Initially I was inspired by beaver sticks I stole while walking along the North Saskatchewan River. I started seeing them as a shared resource with the beaver. I started thinking about the place I picked the sticks from, not a block from my home. The beaver and I share this place. This idea became the catalyst for an investigation into the shared use and living history of place. 

The project focus has not changed. However, it did contract, expand and contract again. This is a good thing. Like a deep breath. An identifiable aspect of a living art practice.

My original focus was more ambitious than feasible. I intended to do several exploratory interventions unannounced, at varying locations around the city. I was interested in exploring audience reaction within differing contexts. Good plan, bad timing. The pandemic made this an awkward proposition. This was modified to three performances added to preorganized events. Two adapted for the WEGO summer family event and one added to Postcommodity’s opening event. 

I’m now working on the final performance. What began as a plan to compose an opus work of experimental music has contracted and will be a raw sound performance using found objects, actions and sound meant to invoke the living history of place.

What are your goals for the remainder of the project?

I am focused on developing the final performance. 

What remains is the physical work of construction, arrangement and experimentation.

One of the lighter things I hope to be doing soon is sharing a few Spotify playlists of songs and albums by artists that have inspire me and have spurred my interest in experimental music.

What has been the best or most interesting part of the project so far?

There have been many things that have stood out for me. It has been exciting and enlightening. I am most grateful to have been able to present three new performance works. I began my career as an assemblage, installation and performance artist. I drifted to painting, eventually pushing that aside to focus on advocacy and education, presentation and curation. This is the first time since the early 90s that I’ve been able to centre all my creative energy on performance. 

It was wonderful to meet Postcommodity and play a small part in their opening night. I have been following their work and that of past member Raven Chacon for some time now. I’m always honoured to meet Dr. Gerald McMaster. I have great respect for his work and have been inspired often by his words. Being around people who share a world view and intellectual interests that I align with is very rare for me. I hope to stay in touch.

Michel Boutin performs at the opening celebration of Postcommodity: Time Holds All the Answers. Photo: Carey Shaw

What have you learned about your art practice since starting this project?

I’ve learnt I’m not a very good content provider or entertainer. The first two performances I did for WEGO were intentional experiments. I’ve worked children’s festivals before. One of my first paid gigs, 1989-90, was creating an interactive sculpture for the Regina Children’s Festival. That was a long time ago. The first performance went well. It had the expected outcome with the bonus of police presence. The second performance was a bit of a flop. The object, action and sound were spot on, but my presentation was off. Years of hosting events and festivals had convinced me I could wing the entertainer part. I was wrong. There is an element of the unknown, a spontaneous uncertainty that is rarely present in theatre, not at all in entertainment but is a near necessity for performance. After 15 years as an artistic director, I’ve had to relearn what it means to be an independent artist. My current work thrives on spontaneous uncertainty. 

Michel Boutin performing a sound piece live
Michel Boutin performs at WEGO in August 2021. Photo: Kenton Doupe

What can you tell us about your final performance later this year?

The date and format for the performance have yet to be set. I’m also having some trouble totally abandoning my past work as a presenter. I hope to include others as part of the roster for this event. This is yet to be decided. I have settled on a working title, “Castor Berth: a living history of time and place”. The piece is a deeper investigation into some of the ideas inspired by my neighbours, the beavers. We live in the same place and use the same trees as resources. Both of our lifestyles alter place. One manipulates the natural flow of water to enhance biodiversity and the living ecosystem. The other is a forced simulation based on data that negates biodiversity and destroys living ecosystems for urban sprawl. I plan on using objects, actions and sounds to lend meaning to place and time as a way of invoking our sense of a living history not constrained by linear time. Something we can only experience in the present and in the presence of place.

The Sustained Artist Project is a new 10-month pilot program at Remai Modern focused on performance art. Remai Modern is working in collaboration with each artist to develop and present new work. The project culminates in a final performance for each artist in 2022.