Residenct Artist: May 5th to June 17th
Brenda is an emerging non-binary multi-disciplinary artist based in Kitchener, with a background in architecture. Their work deals with the complexity of care relationships and thinking about ethics in urban living, often in ways the artist finds humorous or clever. Their practice regularly engages the public in collaborative art and learning experiences, from large-scale projects to interactive time-based installations. Currently, they are tackling questions of care through combinations of media, including textile, animation, printmaking, sound work, photography and sculpture.
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During my residency, I explored 2D animation, screen printing and audio recording. I was thinking about how architecture defines what people can do in space – often in restrictive ways – and how we could re-envision it in a context of spatial freedom, access, ethics, and community. I'm interested in exploring how we could envision rest in publicly visible spaces, something we don't do culturally. I ended up picking four sites in St. John's with different uses: public, industrial, commercial and residential.
This residency was my first time doing a lot of things: recording audio outside, drawing sequences of movement for animations, and using Clip Studio Paint. It was even my first time doing a 3-screen screenprint. I will definitely continue using these tools; I’ve just gotten started, which is the hard part!
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This dedicated time to learn new things and really practice them opens up a lot of potential collaborations with the work I have been doing. While I was here, I put together my first audio work and it’s already part of an exhibition. I think film-type work had been really intimidating to get into, and I have so much still to learn, but pieces of it are really clicking in exciting ways.
I have a new appreciation for how long it takes to create short film works and how much goes into it. I came in thinking I’d have a finished piece when I left, which did make me a bit stressed halfway through. But I just re-evaluated what I wanted to achieve and removed my own deadlines that were causing that stress. It allows me to make the work how I dream it will be and not rush it.
Fog Roll is a completed animation I created during and after my residency. It started upstairs in the St. Michael's Printshop, screen-printing the film's backgrounds. I printed thirty-eight prints, making up the unique frames for the background. Each print is a mono-type, I created changes in the prints by physically manipulating ink with the squeegee. Played together, the fog appears to be moving dramatically in the wind. After scanning the prints, I moved into a digital drawing space, adding the boat, seagulls and the fog that rolls in.
Throughout my residency, I was also playing around with audio recording. I mixed the short soundtrack for Fog Roll from the audio I had recorded around Newfoundland, including the fog horn captured in St. John's harbour! Ultimately, I like this hybrid approach to animation, keeping physical work in the project and utilizing digital tools!
For my page, just some text chunks to update. I think I don't need the sound recording to be added because the Fog Roll video has sounds in it.
