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title: dream listener
year: 2008
time: 19:00
original format: mini dv
director: karen elaine spencer
cinematography: marco luna
sound: marco luna
additional sound: chris carrière
editing: marco luna
narration: karen elaine spencer
participants: doug scholes, felicity tayler, philip tétrault, roger perras
thanks to: dare-dare, homeless nation, conseil des arts et des lettres du québec, centre de recherche urbaine de montréal and the saint-james drop-in centre
presented by:
2011 the john snow house with shara rosko’s the “spirit of glumping,” calgary, alberta
2010 cinema politica, at concordia university, montréal, québec
2008 latitude 53, edmonton, alberta
dream listener goes to the street
she stands on the sidewalk
holds words in front of her
words written on found cardboard
words that recount her dream
others look at the words, read the words, approach her, talk to her
she asks,
did you dream last night?
tell me your dream.
she listens.
when she leaves the street
she leaves the cardboard with the dream behind.
from the 25 november 2006 to the 25 november 2007, i wrote my dreams on cardboard, went out into the street and held the cardboard dream in front of me. over the year one hundred and ninety-four dreams were shared this way. i also spent the year with members of the st-james drop-in centre in montréal, a day centre for people at risk because of homelessness, mental illness, substance abuse, personality disorder, or intellectual handicap.
dream listener combines filmed footage of my encounters on the street as well as a narration of my reflections.
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title: swim’s walk
year: 2002
time: 3:55
original format: mini dv
genre: unannounced performance while holding a camera
technical assistance: eyesteelfilm
presented at: shout at eternity, montréal, quebec
curators: janet bellotto, kelly lynne wood, patrick domenic visentin
i am in my kitchen. i attach eight bags of bread over my stomach using silk thread. i walk swimmer (my dog) to the vacant lot behind the chinese food restaurant. i unleash swimmer so she can run free. standing in the centre of the lot i rip open the bags of bread and watch as the slices fall in a pile on the ground.
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title: karen’s bread shoes
year: 2002
time: 4:04
original format: mini dv
genre: unannounced performance while holding a camera
technical assistance: eyesteelfilm
presented at: (2002) d2d, 7a*11d, toronto, ontario, (2002) 4th international multimedia art festival (imaf,) odzaci, yugoslavia
i drop eight loaves of bread onto the ground. i rip open the bags, take the bread out, lay the slices on the floor and step on them with my bare feet. i squish the bread beneath my feet, the bread is moist, soft. i wrap the bread around my feet, using masking tape to keep it all together. when all the bread is used i stand up and walk out of the building and down the street. the bread falls off the shoes as i walk. i walk until i reach the park. i slip off the shoes and i wait for the birds to come and eat the shoes. i wait for a long time but the birds don’t come.
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title: neck hold
year: 2002
time: 7:47
original format: mini dv
genre: performance for camera
technical assistance: eyesteelfilm
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title: vérifiez que
year: 2000
original format: super vhs
genre: video installation for two monitors
presented by: centre des arts actuels skol, montréal, québec
photos: guy l’heureux
monitor on the right: a digital slowed performance showing the artist standing in a corridor throwing (towards the camera) a steel baton attached to a 21 foot long chain. the baton is dragged back and thrown again. when the action to throw the baton is about to be repeated the monitor goes black and the monitor on the left begins.
monitor on the left: a presentation of the san quentin drama workshop of samuel beckett’s “waiting for godot.” the scene presented is when estergon addresses the child saying, “tell him, tell him that you saw me; and that; that you saw me, you’re sure you saw me, you won’t come back again tomorrow and tell me that you never saw me.” when estergon reaches out to grab the child the monitor goes black and the monitor on the right kicks in.
on the floor is the chain and steel baton used in the performance work.
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