MONOMYTHS - Stage 2
MONOMYTHS
Conceived and curated Jess Dobkin and Shannon Cochrane
Presented by FADO Performance Art Centre at Progress
Stage 2: Refusal of the Call
SHAWNA DEMPSEY & LORRI MILLAN
The Call Refused or Your Local Sky Tonigh is a new performance turn by Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan. Part planetarium show, part rumination on Alice in Wonderland, the nature of rabbits and heros, Dempsey and Millan deliver an off-kilter guide to the stars tonight.
Performed in English / ASL interpreted
Collaborators since 1989, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are among Canada’s best-known performance artists. They were catapulted into the international spotlight in their 20s with the performance and film We’re Talking Vulva. Since then, their live work and videos have been exhibited in diverse venues as far-ranging as women's centres in Sri Lanka to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This Winnipeg-based duo has created installations (such as Archaeology and You for the Royal Ontario Museum) and books (such as Bedtime Stories for the Edge of the World, Arbeiter Ring Press). To most, however, they are known simply as the Lesbian Rangers of Lesbian National Parks and Services. Their humourous, feminist and provocative works have been acclaimed as “one of the high-points of contemporary Canadian artistic production” (Border Crossings Magazine). Performance documentation and artifacts are held in the collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian History Museum, the DIA Centre and numerous university libraries across North America.
www.shawnadempseyandlorrim
ADMISSION: The events in the MONOMYTHS series are offered by donation. Please note that there is limited seating for each performance. Reservations through the individual eventbrite pages is suggested.
ABOUT MONOMYTHS
MONOMYTHS invites a diverse collection of artists, scholars, and activists to revise Joseph Campbell’s conception of the hero’s journey through performance art, lectures, workshops, and other offerings. This new assemblage of non-linear un-narratives proposes a cultural, political and social feminist re-visioning of the world. The MONOMYTHS perception of the universal journey dispels the notion of the lone patriarchal figure on a conquest to vanquish his demons–both inner and outer–in consideration of community, collectivity, and collaboration.
Joseph Campbell’s influential book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) prescribes a common pattern to all of the world’s mythic narratives. According to this fundamental structure, the archetypal hero is challenged to embark on a monumental quest. Over the course of the hero’s journey, trials and obstacles must be overcome until a victory is won and the hero returns home with new knowledge about himself and the world. Campbell’s concept of the monomyth (‘one myth’) is a recognizable motif in both ancient mythology and contemporary culture, including film, music, literature, sports, and advertising. A current trend in popular visual culture replaces the male character with a female one, in spite of the fact that our heroine–from the get-go–would make different choices if the conditions, and conditioning, allowed.
The year-long MONOMYTHS project is presented in three sections. Radically interpreted by artists from First Nations, Canada, Mexico and the USA, part one of MONOMYTHS at Progress presents the first five stages of the journey: The Ordinary World/Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting of the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, and Belly of the Whale. While each MONOMYTHS stage stands alone, the work of each presenting artist is interdependent and connected. These independent visions, when stitched together through the audience’s collective presence, form an exquisite corpse of a larger experimental narrative.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Maria Hupfield (Anishinaabe/Canada/USA)
Ursula Johnson (Mi'kmaw) and Cheryl L'Hirondelle (Cree/Métis/German)
Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan (Winnipeg, Canada)
Feminist Art Gallery (Toronto, Canada)
Armando Minjarez (Mexico/USA)
Jefferson Pinder (USA)
For information about all of the artists in MONOMYTHS and each of the stages, please visit the FADO website: www.performanceart.ca/
The MONOMYTHS venue:
The Theatre Centre (1115 Queen St. West, Mainspace)
www.theatrecentre.org
ACCESSIBILITY AT PROGRESS/THEATRE CENTRE
The Theatre Centre is an accessible facility, with barrier-free washrooms and an accessibility lift to facilitate movement between floors. If you are planning a trip to The Theatre Centre and have any questions about accessibility or would like to make any special arrangements, please call our box office at 416-538-0988. We will be happy to make any arrangements to help facilitate an enjoyable visit to The Theatre Centre.
ABOUT FADO
Established in 1993, FADO Performance Inc. (Performance Art Centre) is a not-for-profit artist-run centre for performance art based in Toronto, Canada. FADO exists to provide a stable, ongoing, supportive forum for creating and presenting performance art. FADO presents the work of local, national and international artists who have chosen performance art as a primary medium to create and communicate provocative new images and new perspectives. Thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council and the Department of Canadian Heritage for their on-going support.
info@performanceart.ca
www.performanceart.ca
@fadoperformanceartcentre
ABOUT PROGRESS
SummerWorks, in partnership with The Theatre Centre and a roster of Toronto theatre and performance organizations/presenters and companies including Aluna Theatre, Dancemakers, FADO Performance Art Centre, Summerworks, The Theatre Centre and Volcano Theatre brings the world to Toronto with Progress: an International Festival of Performance and Ideas, January 14–February 7, 2016.
www.thisisprogress.ca
@SummerWorks
#ProgressTO