EventsPremiere and conversation of “Resonance” signed music composition
November 1, 2023
6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
From left: Jo-Anne Bryan, Pamela Witcher and Theara Yim working together at Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre. Photo by Melanie Mathieu.
A collaborative composition breaks new ground in Signed Music
Here is Pamela Witcher’s promotional video for this event in ASL and LSQ.
CUAG invites you to the free public premiere of a groundbreaking signed music composition, own home search-find / chez soi cherché-trouvé, followed by a conversation with the musicians, artists and project partners. This is a Zoom event. Please register here.
In autumn 2022, Deaf musicians Jo-Anne Bryan, Pamela Witcher and Theara Yim visited Laura Taler’s solo exhibition, THREE SONGS, at CUAG and met with Taler.
Over the next six months they co-created and then performed an extraordinary work of signed music, which responds to and resonates with Taler’s work and explores themes of loss, oppression, Deaf pride, home and transformation. Their performance was beautifully captured on film by Susannah Heath-Eves.
The premiere will be followed by a conversation with the musicians and artists, signed music expert Dr. Jody Cripps and project lead Dr. Ellen Waterman.
This event wraps up the Resonance project, which brought together artists to co-create experimental music in response to visual art exhibitions at CUAG.
Resonance is co-produced by Ellen Waterman and CUAG, supported by the Research Centre for Music, Sound and Society in Canada and generously funded by a SSHRC Insight Development grant and a Canada Council for the Arts Public Outreach grant.
Access There will be ASL-English and ASL-LSQ interpretation available, as well as live captioning.
Participants
Jo-Anne Bryan is an Ottawa-based interdisciplinary artist experiencing life through the intersections of being Black, Deaf, Queer and Woman. Her artistry includes American Sign Language (ASL) storytelling and performance. When not performing, she is writing a new play in the Dramaturgical Collaboration program with Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM).
Jody Cripps is an Assistant Professor of American Sign Language at Clemson University in South Carolina. He conducted groundbreaking ethnomusicological research in Canada on the creative process and production of a Signed Music showcase titled THE BLACK DRUM.
Susannah Heath-Eves (SHE Films) is a documentary filmmaker based in Ottawa, living and working on unceded Algonquin, Anishinaabe territory. Her purpose is to contribute to a more equitable world through films and videos about art, social justice and connection to nature. Her new independent feature documentary, Take It Outside, is coming soon.
Laura Taler is a Romanian-born Canadian artist who works across a range of media including performance, film, sound, sculpture and installation.
Ellen Waterman is Professor and Helmut Kallmann Chair for Music in Canada at Carleton University and Director of the Research Centre for Music, Sound, and Society in Canada.
Pamela E. Witcher an artist, director, interpreter, translator and cultural mediator. Pamela’s artistic expertise includes visual art, videography and Signed Music. Pamela proclaims: “When Deaf communities create information through art and documentation, our existence becomes concrete, known and valued.” Pamela’s Signed Music works have been featured internationally.
Theara Yim is a Cambodian artist who grew up in Montreal and has been Deaf since birth. Alongside his work in education, he has always been fascinated by the arts, particularly the visual arts and poetry related to Quebec sign language (LSQ).