Saturday, October 28
About town throughout the day
These public interventions that are meant to be seen by chance will be performed as part of No Ceiling: It's About Time
This time-based performance riffs on the myth of Sisyphus, using a stepladder and a heavy chain attached to helium balloons. As I try to lift a set of balloons above my head to make them fly, the chain is often too heavy, but I manage my efforts and bring it a few feet further. The chain becomes my dance partner, being dragged from point A to point B, again up the stepladder to then crash on the pavement each time. A series of gestures becomes a sound pattern, a meditation, a song. Like a glitch in the machine, I adopt forms of slow activism that confront memory and psychogeography in relation to our feelings of belonging, and how our investment in these spaces can disrupt colonial mindsets.
About the artist
Acadian multidisciplinary artist Maryse Arseneault holds a BFA from Université de Moncton and a Masters in Studio Arts from Concordia University. Grounded in eco-feminist theory, her recent projects examine notions of alienation and stewardship, while she questions her role as an artist on unceded Mi’kmaki where she currently resides. Recent recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts creation grant and current lecturer in media arts at the Université de Moncton, Arseneault pursues her artistic interventions mainly through performance, drawing and audio-video.
More about Maryse here: marysearseneault.com