Art in Life

OUR HANDS: with Jordan across the ocean for Bbeyond...

Tue, 07 May 2013 06:44:00 -0400

OUR HANDS: with Jordan across the ocean for Bbeyond (Alastair/Brian)

A performance from the series, “Balancing Acts” / Une performance de la série, “Actes en équilibre.”

St. Charles River, Rivière St. Charles, Limoilou, Québec/City, Québec

Colonial site of the Huron nation and Jacques Cartier Park

Site d’origine Huronne et parc Jacques Cartier.

Presented in parallel (complicity and synchronism) with performances by members of the Bbeyond performance art collective at the Flax Street separation barrier (or peace wall); Belfast, Northern Ireland / Performé en complicité et synchronicité.

8.25-9.25 am in Canada / 1.25-2.25 pm in Belfast

5 May 2013

Adapted excerpts from the song “Hands” (1998) by Jewel (Kilcher); also, lyrics by Stevie Nicks and D. Rice.

Extrait de la chanson “Hands” (1998) de Jewel (Kilcher); aussi, paroles de Stevie Nicks et D. Rice.

Performed in 2013 after a suggestion by Alastair McLennan (made in 2011) to create a performance with/about my hands. The work was performed in solo from Québec, where I now reside.

Camera: Julie Fiala; unedited.

A single photo was taken by a young boy with his father upon my request.

Thank you for your openness.

Merci de votre ouverture.

Julie Fiala (copyright)

Peace at hand (with Jordan Hutchings) Parallel actions 5 May...

Mon, 06 May 2013 17:18:13 -0400

Peace at hand (with Jordan Hutchings)

Parallel actions

5 May 2013

Québec - Belfast

New article about indigenous film and identity politics: métissages

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:26:03 -0400

Please read and distribute the my regular column freely. My newest article, an opinion piece about a recent film, is at http://zouchmagazine.com/mesnak-a-first-trilingual-aboriginal-made-feature-length-film-teaches-us-many-things/. Enjoy.

Education through art

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 11:41:00 -0400

Educated people (or people educated through art, including “students” and “artists”) can learn to know their agency and power (to change their conditions) through art/life.

My words here roughly follow the ideals of the late anarchist, art historian and pedagogue Herbert Read.

HOPE

Election week, Ireland, Feb 2012
Performance-action by Julie Fiala and Eve Vaughan in Dublin;
in memory of Jim Larkin’s “peoples” politics on labour rights; photo Michael Stephens.

Thoughts on Education: schools (for graduants everywhere)

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:10:00 -0400

The best schools are those where students get a say in the direction of their education. The best schools are those that consider that ability and education are the real privileges. The best schools are those where profs, however they may be, support students but also themselves as a coherent community of individuals.

Through my experience in Canada, Ireland and the UK, I noticed this especially at schools where they hire the best teachers, who happen to be great artists - rather than great artists who teach because they need cash.

Lastly, the schools with the best students (current and graduate) attract the best teachers. Everybody likes good students.

But the best schools are free - free content and free form(s) - with or without walls or even “teachers,” in the authoritative or autocratic senses.

Manif avec étudiantes (école des arts visuels, Québec)

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 12:34:00 -0400

Manif avec étudiantes (école des arts visuels, Québec)

This was my favourite moment. Few words.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:54:44 -0400

This was my favourite moment. Few words.

LE QUÉBEC DANS LA RUE! LE QUÉBEC DANS LA RUE! LE QUÉBEC DANS LA...

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:45:00 -0400

LE QUÉBEC DANS LA RUE! LE QUÉBEC DANS LA RUE! LE QUÉBEC DANS LA RUE!

First heap at 5km into the manifestation.

All of us - French and English - across other languages, multi-cultures and ages, reunited to stop tuition hikes in the province of Québec.

Many of us are demanding a better world, that includes free forms of education. Singing for the human right to education.

Camera: Julie Fiala (in solidarity with striking students everywhere)

Montréal 22 mars: On avance, on avance, on n'arrête pas.

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:23:00 -0400

DEVANT CETTE INJUSTICE, NE RECULONS PAS!

This is an example of what reclaiming space can really mean in practice. I was there at the front of the first heap. What a privileged witnessing. Thank you.

Photo: Julie Fiala (22 mars 2012)

New performance documentation

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:33:00 -0500

Poet-performer, Carolyne Bolduc (left), and me (right) performing reciprocal (duo) tableaux vivants, as part of a multi-tableaux work developed by artist-curator Marie-Claude Gendron (Québec) for the disused Soleil (newspaper) offices in Québec / City.

27 & 28 January 2012

Presented as part of the event, “On s’graisse la patte (pendant trois jours).”

Curated by Cornet3boules and Gendron.

Images by Emmanuel Duret.

Announcement: New column on Zouch

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:19:00 -0500

I have a new regular journal column at Zouch Magazine. Their concept (online daily journal with selected print publications) was originally founded by the bilingual poet, and man of many anarchisms and intelligences, Salvatore W. Delle Palme (with Jeff Campagna, Creative Director | Founder). I have known Sal since our high school days with my brother, Eric, at the arts “academy” called De La Salle in Ottawa but near Hull, Québec. Zouch is very current and, at present, mostly read in the US and UK (although Canadian content is being produced). This journal is a good resource for students and all interested in contemporary art, society, music, activism, literature and politics.

If you would like, please read my debut article at http://zouchmagazine.com/performance-art-cultural-activism-and-politics-quebec-to-belfast/.

Through regular articles, Julie Fiala traces her story from Ontario to Québec, via the UK and Ireland. After leaving Ontario for Britain in 2004 to pursue graduate studies in Fine Arts, she returned to Québec City, where she lives since the fall of 2011. Her column reviews currents in art, politics and cultural activism, focusing on Ontario, Québec, Britain and Ireland. Please also see biographic info and links at http://zouchmagazine.com/writers.

Best wishes and thank you for circulating.

PS. Below are images from the Gendron tableau vivant (performance by Carolyne Bolduc and I), which is described in the article. These “lost” images were recently and joyously retrieved. Hurray!!!

Please feedback if you have 2 mins to watch this. Explanatory...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:29:00 -0500

Please feedback if you have 2 mins to watch this.

Explanatory text will follow.

Performance-Action by Julie Fiala + Alain-Martin Richard

Montage / Video edit by Julie Fiala

6 February 2012
Copyright
The Artists

Cameras
Guy Sioui Durand
Emmanuelle Duret

Merci à Cornettroisboules

Blue, Blanc, Rouge (150 metres through snow and wind in the basin of la rivière Saint- Charles at Limouilou, Québec/City)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:08:00 -0500

Performance-action

Alain- Martin Richard

Julie Fiala

29 janvier 2012 january 29

9.00-9.50 am Pointe-aux-Lièvres

Documentation: Emmanuelle Duret, Simon Lambert, Guy Sioui Durand and Julie Fiala Merci aussi aux autres témoins: Dominique Rainville et Andrée-Anne Gauthier

The Montreal Bleu Blanc Rouge (Red White and Blue in English) are better known as les Canadiens de Montréal. These are also the colours of the Great British (and French) tricolour flags.

Score

(1) Mark the territory at start (and, eventually, finish)

(2) Create a fine line with equal measures of blue and red yarn at intervals for a distance measuring the entire lenght of the yarn (blue plus red), which is approximately 150 m

(3) Move continuously, transitioning as necessary like an iceberg gliding counter-current over the ice, snow and against the wind.

Props / Accessoires Two performers, blue and red yarns, a drill, two red dowels, snow, coloured costumes.

Performance en action. DEMAIN, dimanche - 9:00 à 10.00 AM – sur la Rivière St-Charles, Limoilou, Québec, Québec.

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:26:00 -0500

Performance en action. DEMAIN, dimanche - 9:00 à 10.00 AM – sur la Rivière St-Charles, Limoilou, Québec, Québec. Suivez la rue de la Briqueterie (entre la 9ième et la 10 ième rue sur la 1ière avenue à Limoilou. Arrivé à la rivière, il y a un observatoire comme lieu idéal pour voir l’action. Artistes Julie Fiala (QC-UK) et Alain-Martin Richard (QC) développeront une action politique en couleur translatant des questions d’identités poreuses (colonisé(e)s et, en même temps, colonisateur(e)s) universelles mais précises. La performance « art-action » ce déroulera dans le creux de la rivière, (ma) face première dans la neige. Venez voir, et, peut-être, patiner après! Cette performance est créée en solidarité avec les pratiques et concepts du collectif de performance, Bbeyond, dont Julie est encore membre à Belfast en Irlande du nord. Maintenant installée à Québec, elle travaille à fortifier des liens identitaires, artistiques et communautaires entre le Québec francophone et l’Irlande du nord colonisé.

Il y a plus de 88 murs de paix (barrières de séparations entre communautés religieuses/politiques) dans la ville de Belfast. Cette performance est développée par Richard et Fiala (qui ont tous deux des liens avec la ville et le collectif) à un temps où l’on parle sérieusement d’abolir ces murs après plusieurs décennies de séparations physiques et architecturales, ajoutant aux divisions psychologiques qui sont certainement plus profondes.

My father always told me

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:41:00 -0500

Mon père ma toujours dit qu’aujourd’hui c’était le premier jour du reste de ma vie. Il avait raison et c’est toujours vrai, aujourd’hui, et espérons pour nous tous que pour demain aussi. My father always told me that today was the first day of the rest of my life. That was good advice. Today, and hopefully tomorrow too.

The 17th of January is Art’s Birthday. A friend of mine aptly reminded me that, “Everyday is Art’s Birthday.” I think that she is right. So belated art’s birthday it is, and to/for everyone. I do not think that the late Robert Filliou (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Filliou) would mind if I declared today (and tomorrow) days of art. Peut-être le lendemain aussi.

I have been a member of the performance art collection called Bbeyond since November 2010. They support performance art practices in Northern Ireland and link with similar minds (and bodies) internationally. Their non-hierachical method of working together across cultures, ages, practices and religions in Belfast continues to be an inspiration.

On Art’s Birthday the collective wrote and circulated the following:

“As the last hours of Art birthday come to a close here and in the spirit it was generated we hope you have or had a Happy Art Birthday!

Elvira Santamaria, Brian Patterson and Alastair MacLennan”

The subject line on the message was

“Happy Art Birthday and Performance Art Monthly Meetings blog launch”‏

http://monthlyperformanceartmeetingsnireland.blogspot.com/

My feeling as I look through the window this morning, out onto the snow and river, through the flowers on our window sill, is that life can be artful - if and when it allows to see oneself and the world carefully.

View from my window in Québec City, 7.00 am, 19 January 2012

Bbeyond members James King, Christoff Gillen and Julie Fiala singing sounds to the city (As if a “happy birthday” to art)

Performance Monthly for Culture Night, Belfast (NI), sunset, 23 September 2011

I was also recording the moment as my contribution to Prefix, which was a festival of performance art at phone booths on Bridge Street in Belfast (for Catalyst Art; see http://www.catalystarts.org.uk/about/)

Photo: Jordan Hutchings

At Trois-Rivières: Silent meditation on the river / Méditation silencieuse sur le fleuve

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:11:44 -0500

Peu de mots -18 degrés Celsius mains écarlates

Je suis à Trois-Rivières, là où se rencontrent trois rivières.

J’ai compté sentir le froid de l’hiver Québecois sur mes mains et de resentir le vent du fleuve, en plus du silence qui est « le bruit » du fleuve et des bateaux ancrés tout proche. Sans mitaines, je viens de performer trois méditations silencieuses pour Trois-Rivières, et ce jusqu’à ce que mes mains ne pouvaient supporter le froid.

Little words -18 degrees Celsius red hands

I am at Trois-Rivières where three waters meet.

I wanted to feel the cold of the Québec winter on my hands and to feel deeply the wind of the river, and, at the same time, the silence that also translates as the sounds of the river and boats anchored closeby. Without mittens, I have just now performed three silent meditations for Trois-Rivières, still and silent, until my hands could no longer stand the cold.

Méditation silencieuse Silent Meditation (1 de 3) Julie Fiala 16...

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:50:00 -0500

Méditation silencieuse Silent Meditation (1 de 3)

Julie Fiala

16 Janvier 2012, Trois-Rivières, Québec

Silent meditation Méditation silencieuse (2 of 3)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:48:00 -0500

Silent meditation Méditation silencieuse (2 of 3)

Silent meditation Méditation silencieuse (3 of 3)

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:47:54 -0500

Silent meditation Méditation silencieuse (3 of 3)

Occupying Tate - Oil on the skin and body politics

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 07:40:00 -0500

Intervention into the Tate Britain exhibition, Single Form (http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=1&roomid=6757), on the anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (2010). Liberate Tate, Human Cost, 2011.

Image copied from http://www.criticismism.com/2011/04/20/liberate-tate-performance-tate-britain/ Image (c) Immo Klink, http://immoklink

An article in the most recent Fuse magazine (http://fusemagazine.org/2011/12/35-1) starts with an image (similar to the above) documenting a 2011 intervention staged at Tate Britain. A body, naked, is enveloped by a thin coat of oil, a coiled, dripping body with hands partially covering eyes and ears as if to block out the world in embarrassment. Corps huileux, elle est toute nue, recroquevillée sur le sol avec mains bloquants partiellement eyes et oreilles (ces senses), embarrassée, comme pour soustraire le monde]. (Authors Kevin Smith and Clayton Thomas-Muller, “Social Licence / Complicity in the Age of Extraction” (2011)).

I read on but am drawn back into this image for a few reasons that are beyond easy words. First, it brings oil in direct contact with the physical body. This image makes it impossible to disassociate issues of oil (trade, pipe/lines, colonisation, territoriality, displacement of peoples) with issues of bodies. When a major cultural institution like Tate Britain is being sponsored by British Petroleum (as Smith and Thomas-Muller’s article underscores), it is easy to question the ethics of corporate cultural patronage in the UK and elsewhere. Moreover, what is happening is a distancing of institutions like Tate from their own accountability in bigger debates of the environment, capitalism and ethics, perhaps all in the name of art.

More importantly, starting with this article this morning is timely considering it’s the second day of hearings about the proposal for a Northern Gateway pipeline (see http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/01/08/bc-northern-gateway.html).

Just as this bold image highlights, what these hearings reveal is how this controversial debate does and will affect people, ideologically, yes (this is evident for example if we consider the vocal opposition of most aboriginal peoples in Alberta and BC). But also, there are the potential serious environmental hazards and displacements that leave traces on the physical and psychological body. These debates are rendered more complex by promises of job creation and capital in an ongoing recession and fragile economic world realities.

Go to the link below by Platform’s James Marriott for more cultural perspectives on oil http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/a_social_license_to_operate