SOW THREAD UNFOLD
April 2021 - October 2021
Introduction
SOW THREAD UNFOLD is a project of Wonder’neath Art Society with support from the Canada Council of the Arts. In the summer of 2021, three artists were commissioned to create socially engaged art, using their particular media as a vehicle to expand community narratives in Kjipuktuk (Halifax). They were asked to approach the work as an artist and a field researcher, visually documenting their collaboration process.
When this project was conceived it was a hands-on project that would have artists engaging with the community face to face. Due to COVID-19 restrictions the entire project needed to move to remote and digital delivery. Each of the artists had to alter their projects significantly, experiment with new delivery platforms and work in new mediums.
The artist team met weekly from May through August with Project Coordinator, Leesa Hamilton and Christian McGinty, Media Consultant and Website Designer, to share research, discuss processes and present work in progress.
We are happy to share the culmination of the work, research and creative process of SOW THREAD UNFOLD.
Commissioned Artists
Shaya Ishaq
Along the Coast is a podcast that centers the stories of dynamic educators based in Kjipuktuk, unceded Mi'kmaq territory also known as Halifax. In this miniseries, you will hear three conversations between myself and some incredibly inspiring, multifaceted, heart-centred people who share the thread of pedagogy. Along the Coast explores how African Nova Scotian and Afro-diasporan educators in this part of the Maritimes are approaching their teaching practices in response to this world-shifting event and other factors. This series explores how folks have been adapting, coping, shaping change, and making due in today’s quote-unquote classroom over the last two years.
Jenny Yujia Shi
What We Will Not Leave Behind is a 6- month research creation project supported by Wonder’neath Art Society with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. This project focuses on collecting individual experiences of the Nova Scotian Chinese diaspora for the development of an animated short film.
My intention behind this research is two-fold: first, maritime Chinese voices in historical records and current dialogues across Canada are relatively scarce. I want to document the rich array of experiences here in Nova Scotia. Secondly, over the last twelve years, I have time and again found myself as a token of the ‘chinese experience” or a stereotype in mainstream imagination. I want to highlight the ordinary yet precious experiences that make us human.
My process unfolded from individual conversations with four community members of Chinese descent who reside in Halifax. The conversations began from their experiences adapting and/or modifying versions of themselves as they navigate identity, culture and everything in between in a small maritime province. Each conversation evolved in vastly different ways: from railroad workers searching for their “Gold Mountain” (金山), to watching the coastline of Shanghai from the SS President Wilson, to compromised communication between parent and child, to spending the first year in Nova Scotia during COVID-19. Following each conversation, field notes, drawings and readings were documented in a research roadmap that informed the short animations.
This presents the visual outcomes and research process up to October 2021. I plan to continue this research beyond the time frame of this project.
Renée Forestall
The Birds Love You, is a multimedia projection compilation/ slide show- based on unmoderated art making sessions with Team Possibles members during lockdown. While creating collaborative art together online through zoom annotation and screen-desktop-sharing using photoshop we recorded and created a series of screenshot videos of our art-making process. This series
of virtual collaborative drawings clips are drawn on the Blue Building where the images will be projected during Nocturne. We have gathered together to make art every week for over 15 years. Over the last year we have existed in this liminal virtual space, where we have met and created art together via zoom calls. We have done this while waiting to re-group. Unmoderated Projections: aims to make visual the connections and culture of people with Down syndrome (Ds) and the extraordinary spirit that this community brings to others. Covid and Lockdown have been particularly difficult on the Ds community. We are creating a series of monumental collaborative drawings that are site specific but very much experimental and low tech - that reflect a stream of consciousness. Unmoderated Projections: aims to meet and share our drawings while waiting to get back to our regular studio times together.
With Special Thanks to Heather Wilkinson, Melissa Marr, Morgan Bath, Sol Nagler, Wonder’neath Art Society and the Canada Council for the Arts.