Three Poems by Eve Joseph – a video poem animation by Karen Hibbard – 2015
This video poetry is collaboration between an artist and a poet. A visualization of 3 poems by Eve Joseph about death and dying, it was exhibited at Vancouver Island School of Art in 2015. The exhibition entitled In Cahoots was curated by Efren Quiroz.
Karen Hibbard is a contemporary artist living in Victoria, BC. Karen’s video poem, Waking at the Mouth of the Willow River by Don McKay, Night Field (McLelland and Stewart, 1992) won second prize at the Victoria Writers Festival in 2014.
Eve Joseph is a poet who grew up in North Vancouver and now lives in Victoria. Her recently-released book In the Slender Margin, won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Award. Her two books of poetry, The Startled Heart (Oolichan, 2004) & The Secret Signature of Things (Brick, 2010) were both nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Award and in 2010 she was awarded the P.K. Page Founder’s Award for poetry.
‘Shoppin’- 2014
‘shoppin’ celebrates the liberation of the overworked shopping cart set free into nature. In this new environment, nature adapts to the carts. And the carts adjust to nature by mirroring animal herd behaviours.
shoppin’ playfully undermines the high value capitalistic societies place on consumerism, at the expense of economically viable and healthy communities. It is ultimately pathological in that it is unsustainable.
There is growing evidence that ‘oniomania’ (Greek) or compulsive shopping is a significant and worsening problem with serious consequences, both emotional and financial and linked to overall dissatisfaction or unhappiness.
‘kittykaraoke’- 2013
‘kittykaraoke’ subverts the negative stereotypes of senior women as isolated and fragile by featuring their volunteerism. Not only do seniors contribute to a ‘greens ‘ urban space by gardening, they are also pivotal in defining and maintaining ‘community’.
Images of seniors are rare and need to be supported. There is an agency of women who fall within this category and my sensibility as an artist engages with this important perspective.
‘kittykaraoke’ is much like and a typical ‘karaoke’ session- eclectic. ‘The term Karaoke is a portmanteau of Japanese kara “empty”, and ōkesutora “orchestra”. Referring to natural life cycles through seemingly incongruent elements, a light is shone on the second half of life’s ‘journey’.
‘Debris/detritus’- 2013
Debris/detritus- Nature fights back. The narrative of ‘debris/détritus’ realizes an ‘out of control’ consumerism despite the ‘green’ campaign’s noble efforts to curtail pollution through recycling. Fashioning protective gear out of the debris, the animals return the ubiquitous plastic bags and bottles to us. ‘Debris/détritus’ is a cautionary tale that puts the blame where it squarely belongs, reminding us that we are affecting the environments of others as well as our own because of an addiction to ‘lifestyle’.
La nature se défend. Le récit de «débris / détritus» concrétise un consumérisme «hors de contrôle», malgré les nobles efforts de la« campagne verte » pour réduire la pollution grâce au recyclage. En se fabriquant un équipement de protection à partir de débris, les animaux nous renvoient les omniprésents sacs et bouteilles en plastique. «Débris / détritus» est un conte moral qui rejette la responsabilité à ceux qui en sont la cause, il nous rappelle que nous affectons l’environnement des autres, ainsi que le notre, à cause d’une dépendance à un certain « style de vie ».
Audio Labyrinthe – 2012
‘Audio Labyrinthe’ is an interactive art installation (video with sound composition & interactive floor sculpture). Walking the ‘Audio labyrinthe’ ultimately encourages a call to action via meditative practices which foster self awareness.
The labyrinth is made up of braided debris so the viewer must walk through ‘garbage’ to meditate on the issue at hand- overconsumption and its affect on our environment.
‘Audio Labyrinthe’ encourages us to change our consumerist behaviour by recognizing what is discordant about our lifestyles.
The video segment was shot on location at Patricia Beach, Lake Winnipeg, a well-known mown-grass labyrinth at St. Benedict’s Monastery, a public art piece at Assiniboine park and the Skate board park at the Forks, Manitoba. The performers interact with their respective labyrinths by drawing, walking, cycling, and skateboarding. The sound composition was arranged from sounds gathered from freesound.org. The video will mirror the interactive labyrinth in the gallery.
The floor sculpture is made from sewn or woven ‘clean’ garbage and laid out as a labyrinth so that people can walk it in contemplation. The walk will be accompanied by the video with its sound composition.
Labyrinths are intercultural and have been found in cultures as disparate as Native American culture, (the Tohono O’odham labyrinth), Goan cave art in northern India, and on a dolmen shrine in the Nilgiri Mountains in southern India not to mention throughout Europe.
Media Arts : Video
Audio Labyrinthe (13:33 min), 2012
An audio response to movement
‘Audio Labyrinthe’ charts the journeys of ‘travellers’ of various ages, following paths of their own invention. Merging ‘audio’ with ‘labyrinthe’, the title refers to actual and imagined sounds. The sounds respond to the actions, psychological state as well as emotional moods of the ‘travellers’. Rituals mirror our biological cycles, offering psychological comfort through a sense of bonding.
Credits: Karen Hibbard: concept/video production/sound composition*
In collaboration with performers: Dwayne Till and Milo, Susan Horodyska, and Jim Bugslag
*with a special thanks to freesound.org
Debris / Détritus – 2012
‘Debris/Détritus’ is a video installation installation in which the main component is a video animation/”screen” soft sculpture. The video animation connects ‘green’ marketing campaign to current waste disposal practices, inviting viewers to critique our urban landscape by exposing the discrepancies between the shiny new product and the dirty trash it becomes. The projection screen for the piece is constructed from the very debris that the piece is critiquing. ‘Debris/Détritus’ continues my interest in patterns and pathological behaviours, focusing on the mixed message we receive daily to consume and to be environmentally responsible.
The animation will be composed of ‘green’ icons such as; Recycling logos as well as images of discarded refuse- performing a choreographed dance together that is both mesmerizing and macabre. The looping animation will have an original sound composition by Ingrid Gatin (‘Ephemeras’ & ‘Tralala’).
“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.”
– Alfred North Whitehead, “Dialogues” (1954),
English mathematician and philosopher
‘Debris/Détritus’ continues my interest in patterns and pathological behaviours, focusing on the mixed message we receive daily to consume and to be environmentally responsible. The amount of garbage and pollution being produced in the world is growing to the point of impacting global stability. We are dancing on the edge by adapting to current situations and deluding ourselves that this can continue. ‘Debris/Détritus’ equates ‘lifestyle’ consumption to a pathological behaviour.
Tralala, 2009 – 2011
‘Tralala’ hones in on pathological behaviours of consumption. Not in control anymore, we must adapt ourselves to the world we’ve created. The transgressions of the trolls are a more extreme version of our own behaviour. A constant cycle of consumption is the theme.
Currently, I’m interested in recycling as a metaphor for life. The continual renewing, reusing and disposing of garbage is the focus. This links to my interest with psychological patterns and bio-chemical cycles. There is a holistic approach when everything in the equation is considered. How do we decide what is rubbish, damaged, worthless, waste, and garbage? The ‘dumpster divin’ project delves into the act of recycling or ‘curb shopping’, ‘garbage gleaning’, ‘trash picking and skally-wagging’.
How do we decide what is rubbish, damaged, worthless, waste, and garbage? ‘dumpster divin’ delves into the act of recycling or ‘curb shopping’, ‘garbage gleaning’, ‘trash picking and skally-wagging’.
Before the ‘dumpster divin’ series, I produced the series “Ephemeras” which was concerned with the act of throwing away. They are linked. ‘Ephemeras’ focused on the ‘discardable’ while ‘dumpster divin’ focuses on renewal through subjugation.
Media Arts : Video
Tralala (6:00 min), 2011
Credits: A video art project by Karen Hibbard with a sound composition by Ingrid Gatin. The performers in the video are Ryan Klatt, Dwayne Till & Milo and Ingrid Gatin.
I’m directing my attention to the garbage bin and those who actively find inspiration there. Images that I’m working with involve a video in which fashionable young people find wearable ‘treasures’ while perusing the alleyway. As well, there are posters with trickster trolls (a theme that I’ve used before) cavorting in garbage. They showcase the images of waste that we wish to circumvent. I’m currently working on maquettes that take their inspiration from piles of trash. These will be worked into larger sculptures.
We are at a crossroads regarding how we deal with our waste and how to motivate industry to take responsibility for polluting as well as stripping the earth of its natural resources. Of course as consumers we are part of the problem. How we deal with this crisis will be one of the major deciding factors to our survival. ‘dumpster divin’ is putting this issue into the public forum for discussion. It will engage the viewer through humor but not recoil from the ugly truth. We are surrounded by the bi-product of our consumerism-garbage.
Tralala (dumpster divin’)
Mon travail récent explore le recyclage en tant que métaphore de la vie. Le renouvellement continuel, la réutilisation ou la mise au rebut de la matière. J’aborde ces thèmes en lien avec les patterns psychologiques et les cycles bio-chimiques, que mon travail artistique a souvent abordés. L’approche se veut holistique, en ceci que tous les éléments de l’équation sont pris en compte.
Comment déterminons-nous ce qui est : ordure, déchet, hors d’usage, inutile, irrécupérable, foutu ?
‘dumpster divin’ examine et fouille la dynamique du glanage, de la récupération, du recyclage, de la réutilisation. J’ai produit récemment une série d’œuvres, EPHEMERAS, qui explore le « jeter », l’ « abandonner », le « laisser tomber ». ‘dumpster divin’ en est le complément : alors qu’EPHEMERAS se penche sur le rejet, ‘dumpster divin’ porte sur le renouveau à-travers l’assujettissement, la subjugation.
Mon attention tourne autour des ordures et de ceux qui y trouvent leur compte. Ou l’inspiration.
Je travaille présentement sur diverses représentations, parmi lesquelles des images vidéos de jeunes branchés trouvant des trésors vestimentaires en explorant les ruelles. Également, des affiches où des trolls malicieux (également objets d’un travail récent) font des cabrioles parmi des détritus. Ces images évoquent notamment la gestion des déchets et ses défis. Je travaille également sur des maquettes inspirées d’amoncellements de déchets, prémisses pour des sculptures de plus grande envergure.
– Traduction par Normand Baril
Ephemeras – 2009 – 2010
We are all creatures of habit and our daily rituals often go unnoticed until for some reason we are no longer able to do them. When we are gone, these are the imprints that speak volumes to those who lived with us and cared about us. Ephemeras is a series about visual “paths”, “patterns” and the “gestures” of daily ritual.
The events being recognized are the unglamorous, the ignored, the seemingly invisible, the quiet, the constant and the pathological.
We are constantly in flux, modifying ourselves and our surroundings.
Media Arts : Video
Ephemeras (2:35 min), 2010
Studying the ritual of gesture in everyday life
This project follows the poetic traces created from daily rituals. We are constantly in a state of transition, leaving behind clues of our existence via gesture and habit.
Credits: A video art project by Karen Hibbard with sound composition by Ingrid Gatin.
Process
In 2008, I completed an artist residency in Denmark, Næstved at the Grafisk Værksted and learned to produce photogravure prints with Jan Kiowsky & Torben Søberg. ‘Ephemeras’ is a look at the visual “paths”, “patterns” and the “gestures” found in daily ritual. The series also includes digital inkjet posters, video, and a paper sculpture component.
“Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.”
— Alfred North Whitehead, Dialogues (1954), English mathematician and philosopher
I want to recognize the traces or modifications that we create without much effort. These become poetic paths or patterns in daily life that refer to ritual, habit, and instinct. The goal is to visualize this.
The events being recognized are the unglamorous, the ignored, the seemingly invisible, the quiet, the constant and the pathological. We are constantly in flux, modifying ourselves and our surroundings.
We are all creatures of habit and our daily rituals often go unnoticed until for some reason we are no longer able to do them. When we are gone, these are the imprints that speak volumes to those who lived with us and cared about us.
Projet : « Ephemeras »
Ce projet constitue l’amorce d’une série d’oeuvres que je prévois entreprendre, portant sur les traces éphémères de la vie quotidienne, traces issues d’habitudes, de rituels ou d’accidents. Mon travail vise à en révéler la poésie. Les événements ici en cause sont les plus anodins, souvent inaperçus, ignorés, presqu’invisibles, banals ou pathologiques.
Nous sommes constamment en état de transformation, laissant derrière nous de furtives traces.
Je m’intéresse aux états d’inconscience dans lesquels nous laissent des marques subtiles.
Mon travail vise à révéler la poésie de ces gestes, de ces états, et des traces qu’ils laissent. Ces traces tissent des trajectoires, des motifs récurrents, archéologie de nos vies et du temps qui passe. Révélées, elles s’offrent en vestiges d’émerveillement, mise en scène poétique qui permet le recueillement et suscite la réflexion.
Nous sommes des êtres d’habitudes et nos rituels quotidiens passent souvent inaperçus jusqu’à ce que, pour une raison ou pour une autre, nous ne soyons plus en mesure de les répéter. Lorsque nous ne sommes plus là, ce sont les empreintes qui nous évoquent auprès de ceux qui restent, de ceux à qui nous manquons.
Traduction par Normand Baril
Bold & Baffling, 2009
“Emotional Porn” investigates the emotional “ups and downs”, noting the cycles, ensuing drama, and semi-resolution found in soap operas. Like sexual porn, the viewer is stimulated just enough to keep watching but not enough to be satiated. Soap operas use emotion as their raw material just as porn uses the body. The goal of the Bold & Baffling project is to map the emotional journey of the love addict in order to be able to recognize and assess the patterns.
The goal of this project is to map the emotional journey of the love addict in order to be able to recognize and assess the patterns. I am especially interested in discovering patterns found in human behaviour, in cycles of addiction as well as societal stereotypes.
The “Bold & Baffling” series is inspired by the soap opera of a similar name and deals with the cycles of addiction (emotional) and it’s biological underpinnings. I am fascinated by these cyclical patterns.
Like sexual pornography, emotional pornography stimulates just enough to keep the addict interested but not enough to be satiated. Soap operas use emotion as their raw material just as porn uses the body. The defining quality of the soap opera form is its seriality.
Recently, I noted these following emotional states in the first 5 minutes of the soap opera, “The Bold & the Beautiful”: reflection, regret, shame, desire, self-loathing, fear, neediness, recognition, concern, shock, nurture, loss. guilt, realization, and anguish.
One could observe the emotional arc of the characters and thereby its audience.
Soap operas have a strong female following.
“The soap opera has always been a “woman’s” genre… assumed of interest… to working-class women with simple tastes and limited capacities… Despite the fact that the soap opera is demonstrably one of the most narratively complex genres of television drama… it continues to carry this sexist and classist baggage”.
“By the 1980’s some 50 million viewers in the U.S. “followed” one or more of the soaps”
“the core demographic group of 18-49 year-old women.”
“Emotional Porn” investigates the emotional “ups and downs”, noting the cycles, ensuing drama, and semi-resolution found in soap operas.
Like sexual porn, the viewer is stimulated just enough to keep watching but not enough to be satiated. Soap operas use emotion as their raw material just as porn uses the body.
pornography… n. obscene literature, photographs, paintings. Etc. intended to cause sexual excitement the treating of obscene subjects in art, literature…
addict…1. to habituate, esp. to be or become addicted to have given oneself up to a practice or habit, usually bad and be or become unduly dependent upon it.
— The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language:
Encyclopedic Edition 1988, Lexicon Publications, Inc. New York
I am fascinated by cyclical patterns and during the making of this work, found a connection to patterns of weather, recycling, plumbing, and human behaviour — it functions ad infinitum.
While working as an artist in residency (Iceland), I discovered the yuletide lads of Icelandic culture. They are tricksters and children are warned to watch out for them especially at Christmas. In my installation these trolls are re-enacting addictive or anti-social behaviours. This series continues an engagement with psychological states.