LIVE AND IN YOUR FACE
VANCOUVER'S BIENNIAL PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL CELEBRATES THE W O R L D ' S MOST INCLUSIVE ART
BY HILARY PEACH AND
ALEXANDER VARTY

I

f y o u h a p p e n to be p a s s i n g t h e
YWCA thrift store at Main and 28th
on Saturday (October 25), you may
notice that the window is filled with
large brown paper bags covered in
images of women and pieces of text.
This is the set for Lori Weidenhammer's
improvised performance piece, One Hundred
Housewives. The women are homemakers—
pop-culture icons and members of Weidenh a m m e r ' s o w n family—and t h e text is
excerpted from a variety of volumes, such
as the Chatelaine Institute's How to Shop.
During the afternoon performance, Weidenhammer will stand in the window, dip into
the bags, and pull out various costume
pieces, d o n n i n g and combining t h e m to
create a succession of improvised characters.
A hundred housewives in five hours might
seem like a lot. But "in the full spectrum of
all the different housewives in the world,"
Weidenhammer says, "a hundred really isn't
that many at all." This piece is the first in a
series aimed at breaking down stereotypical
images of women as perpetuated by pop
media. Possible sequels include One Hundred
Evil Babes and One Hundred Muses. Weidenhammer characterizes her piece as a hybrid, a
theatrical improvisation set inside a visualart installation, and she promises that it will
be "an endless tickle-trunk romp".
Whether hybrid or new form, wordless
playlet or absurdist fashion show, One Hundred Housewives is presented as part of the
LIVE Biennial of Performance Art, a sprawling series of shows, lectures, and panel discussions being held at a variety of Vancouver
venues until November 29. It's possible that
t h e festival will h e l p clarify t h e debate
around the nature of performance art. But
it's just as likely that LIVE might leave audiences provoked, enlightened, entertained,
enraged, and just as confused as ever, for
although Weidenhammer-style humour is
not necessarily an integral part of performance art, hybridism is.
Key to the genre, as far as it can be defined, is that it is the most inclusive of all
the art forms. It gives its practitioners access
to different media without demanding technological complexity; it allows for spontaneity in a way that traditional, text-driven
theatre simply can't; and it can express a
gentle, almost meditative sensibility that
media art only rarely evokes.
"That's pretty close to the mark of what
we're trying to hit," says LIVE artistic director
David Yonge, who seems just as baffled by
performance art's range of expression—and
LIVE's broad parameters—as any neophyte.
Discussing what separates performance art
from new-media work, for instance, he says:
"I'm sure those lines are drawn somewhere,
but I'm not sure that I could draw them. But

I'm attracted to performance art because of
the possibilities to it that are not available in
any other medium, and that's what we're
hoping to get across." And when asked if any
themes are emerging within the context of
the festival, he begs to defer judgment until
it's all over.
"I can sort of picture what's going to happen, but until I actually go and watch all
the shows I don't know if I could actually
say what themes there might be. We have,
like, 46 different events, and there is somet h i n g t h a t links all of them, but I d o n ' t
know what it is yet."
Amorphousness, imprecision, an expansive
nature—again, we come back to the notion of
hybridism. Allen Fisher, an English academic,
poet, and painter who will give a Kootenay
School of Writing-sponsored reading at Artspeak on November 18, observes that artistic
openness is perhaps inevitable in a medium
so dependent on a network of collaborators,
acquaintances, and friendly venues.
"It's characterized by a kind of bonhomie,
you could say, a willingness to be inclusive," he explains. "Performances that you
might first think of as being poetry or music
would include multimedia much more readily, be m u c h more intermedia, be m u c h
more open to variety."
Radix Theatre's LIVE contribution is typically interdisciplinary. Part drive-in theatre, part
live radio drama, part installation, Haifa-Tank
is about our shared relationship to the automobile. "It's dysfunctional," says artistic director Andrew Laurenson, "and we can't get out
of it. We love them, and they're killing us."
As usual, Radix is kicking theatre out of
the theatre: the venue for the November 22
performance is a large parking lot at the
foot of Ontario Street. Audience members
are asked to arrive in their cars. ("If you
d o n ' t drive, carpool.") The vehicles will
then be arranged in a circle, facing inwards,
with the performance in the centre. The star
of the show is a circling 1971 Dodge Monaco, with a driver w h o will be joined by
other human performers. Music and sound
will be broadcast to the audience via their
car radios, tuned to an FM microtransmitter.
Radix has a reputation for producing sitespecific works that are interactive and socially relevant. However, Laurenson feels he is
sometimes working against the presumption
that performance art lacks technique. Rather
than alienate an audience by producing inaccessible works, he wants to include the viewer in the performer's role. In Half-a-Tank, not
only do audience members create the performance space with their cars, potential viewers are also asked to help write the play. A
voice-mail box has been dedicated to receiving phone-in car stories and suggestions,
which will then be incorporated into the
script. (To fill out the audio questionnaire or
tell your car story, call 604-254-0707, ext. 2.)
A different sort of technology will be

Don't ask LIVE artistic director David Yonge to define the performance-art themes in his
upcoming series. He's waiting until he's experienced them. Alex Waterhouse-Hayward photo.

deployed on November 20, when Australian
artist Lea Donnan streams a live Web cast via
the LIVE Web site (www.livevancouver.bc.ca/).
It's part of Chiasma, a project initiated by the
Folly Gallery in Lancaster, England, whereby
three artists perform over three days in their
hometowns; their pieces are broadcast to
international projection sites in Lancaster,
Sydney, Venice, Hong Kong, and Vancouver.
Donnan maintains that the expression of
faith is a universal theme and is intent on
showing ritual in day-to-day living. She
views worship not only as a sacred act of
divinity but as a modern rite of personal
sanctity: "Every day is a performance of
sorts, a navigation exercise."
Donnan often uses animals in her work
as a way of addressing t h e h u m a n condition. In this piece, she is "an adorned secretary/wife/assistant and high-society
temptress addressing a computer with communications borrowed from primates". Add
to t h i s flying D a n i s h e s , s h a k i n g fists,

$15and $12. Info: www.dhar
TIBET FUNDRAISER BANKING they're
maofthewest com/.

OLDER ROMANTICS REUNITE
When Luyen Dao recently heard from
his parents that a pair of family friends
who happen to be high-ranking
Tibetan monks were visiting town, he
didn't leave it to Banyen Books to
form the welcoming committee. On an
impulse, the CBC Web developer organized a celebration for Nenten
Rinpoche and Khen Rinpoche, abbot
and abbot emeritus, respectively, of
Tibet's Chungba Monastery and India's
Sera Mey Monastery. On Saturday night
(October 25) at the Roundhouse, the
public is invited to brush robes with
these close associates of the Dalai
Lama, both of whom live in exile at
Sera Mey in Mysore, India.
Dao told the Straight that The
Fabric of Tibet will reveal "an aspect
of Tibetan culture that is not necessarily tied in to spirituality but nonetheless is a huge part of it". In addition to

a puja, or traditional blessing, there'll
be a travel slide show, educational
exhibits, and performances by Tibetan,
Vietnamese, and Indian musicians.
All money raised goes to the
Chungba Monastery reconstruction
fund, Tibet's 4,000-plus exiled monks,

ARTS
and the Chinese-occupied country's
impoverished children. How tough was
it booking the two uber-monks? "It's
just a matter of getting into their
schedules and asking them," Dao said.
MLAs, be mindful.
Advance tickets—call 604-2150011—are $12 for adults and $10 for
seniors and students; at the door,

The Group of Five is having a public
reunion. The Basement Show, opening tonight (October 23) at the Electra
building (Nelson and Hornby streets),
features multiroom installations by
sculptor-turned-author Douglas
Coupland and painters Graham
Gillmore, Angela Grossmann, Attila
Richard Lukacs, and Derek Root. This
subterranean convergence of the erstwhile Young Romantics—-who became
friends in the early 1980s at the Emily
Carr Institute of Art and Design—runs
only until next Friday (October 31).
"They haven't had a show [together] in 20 years," said Naomi Sawada,
public programs and publicity coordinator of the Morris and Helen Belkin
Art Gallery, which helped organize the
exhibit. "Ifs very impromptu; it's sort
of a reaffirmation of their friendship
and a look back on that time." For
info, call 604-822-2759.

chimps sticking twigs in computerized termite mounds, and you'll have some idea of
what to expect when her portion of Chiasma is broadcast. (The other Chiasma particip a n t s , local artist Rebecca Belmore and
England's Hester Reeve, offer their contributions on November 21 and 22, respectively.)
The LIVE site is also an essential source of
information on the many performances not
d i s c u s s e d h e r e . But it w o n ' t t e l l y o u
whether they're good or not. For that, you'll
have to dip your feet into the once-scary
waters of performance art itself.
"It's n o t all going to be great," Yonge
says, laughing. "But maybe I shouldn't say
that. After all, we're trying to change the
public's perception of performance art. Give
it a chance, and you'll probably see it as an
incredibly powerful medium." •
The LIVE Biennial of Performance Art happens
at various venues until November 29. Tor information, visit www.livevancouver.bc.ca/.

VAG GETS UNSTUFFED The

GG NOMINATIONS FOR B.C.

Vancouver Art Gallery has never been
big on contemporary design, a deficiency it's trying to correct by having Bruce
Mau curate the international touring
exhibit Massive Change: The Future of
Global Design Culture, opening at the
VAG next summer. In the meantime,
there's Extraordinary, an unstuffysounding fundraising gala at Canada
Place on Friday (October 24).
"It doesn't matter what your
lifestyle is—whether you live in a
house or an apartment—you're always
looking for design items," cochair
Monte Clark said over the phone. To
supply that demand, there's a live auction of ultra-desirable pieces (highlights at www.vanartgatlery.bc.ca/) by
the likes of Arthur Erickson, David
Hockney, Ralph Lauren, and Martha
Sturdy. In a departure from the usual
sit-down format, guests can graze on
food by 18 top local restaurants, take
in OJs, and frequent the Bombay
Sapphire Blue Lounge. For tickets,
$150, call 604-662-4747.

Several B.C. authors and publishers
are among this year's Governor
General's Literary Awards nominees. Tom Wayman got a poetry nod
for My Father's Cup (Harbour
Publishing); in drama, Maggie
Clements was nominated for Burning
Vision (Talonbooks); Maggie de
Vries's Missing Sarah: A Vancouver
Woman Remembers Her Vanished
Sister (Penguin Books Canada) is
a nonfiction contender; and Sarah
Ellis is a children's-literature finalist
for her novel The Several Lives of
Orphan Jack (Douglas & Mclntyre,
whose books received six of the
70 nominations). Other local houses
on the list are Nightwood Editions
and Raincoast Books.
The four children's-lit winners
will be announced on November 10,
while the main awards presentation
is November 12. For a list of
nominees, see sNwwxanada
counciica/.
• NICK ROCKEL

THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT • OCTOBER 23-30, 2003 • 5 1