Category: Present

ñ (enye)—ilvs strauss

Nov 19 – 29, 2024

ñ (enye) is a multimedia bilingual installation / listening party by ilvs strauss (ilvs pronounced “elvis”). Visitors are asked to bring their ears for a guided journey through a labyrinth of intentional sound, audible and otherwise. Along the way, we’ll flip through the catalog of basic human needs and delve into an inquiry re: the advent of language, amongst other things. Ultimately, ñ (enye) raises the questions: What is it we hear? What is it we want to hear?

This exhibition also features strauss’ illustrated zine, “everything i heard over the course of my day all at once,” which was the original inspiration for her installation.

Join us at SUM gallery on Nov 19 for the opening reception of a new multimedia bilingual installation by ilvs strauss.

Register Here

ABOUT ILVS STRAUSS

From a sociodemographic standpoint, I am a 45 year old educated, queer, mixed-race, white-passing, female bodied, Honduran-American artist. From a non-sociodemographic standpoint, I’m still those things, but manifest in 3D by the ethereal: experience, values, judgement, desire, need, love, motivation, inspiration, etc. The list goes on, but for now I’ll focus on the last three. 

I love language and how it relates to the body.

I love surtitles, subtitles, and translation studies. 

I love blurring the line between technician and performer.

I love the science and philosophy of sound – What is sound even? What are the effects of sound on our body, in our minds? How do our bodies/brains receive and interpret sound?

I’m motivated by considerations of accessibility – the show I am working on relies heavily on projected text, it is a lot to ask of an audience, to read for a sustained amount of time. How can I change the work to become accessible to those of different vision/hearing levels while maintaining the spirit and integrity of the piece?

The physics of sound inspires me. Sound is not a singular tiny object that travels along a wavy line from Point A to Point B. It is vibration – not a thing at all. Something (a voice, the slamming shut of a book, bird song) makes a molecule vibrate, which in turn makes the adjacent molecules vibrate, etc. A chain reaction radiating out in 3D. This has been a vital paradigm shift for me, a shift from thinking of singular entities on solo journeys to communities of entities vibrating in an iterative process.

I’m inspired to stop calling my ‘solo’ show a ‘solo’ show, for there is absolutely nothing I have done or will do that does not require the help/contribution/support/assistance of another.

Sacred Sacrilegious—Sujit Vaidya

Dec 3 – 13, 2024

SUM gallery brings 2024 to a close with Sacred Sacrilegious, a film by bharatanatyam-trained dancer and choreographer Sujit Vaidya, with videographer Robert Kingsbury and sound designer Parmela Attariwala.

Sacred Sacrilegious is a 40-minute film that explores the body as an offering to the five elements in accordance with Hindu philosophy (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space). It is an abstraction of ideas that are placed through the body as moving landscapes. With his collaborators, Kingsbury and Attariwala, Vaidya has created virtual worlds for the body to inhabit an idea or a feeling through a series of visuals, each visual carrying something deeper within it. The viewer’s gaze is invited to stand on the edge of the visuals and make their own relationships with what’s being offered. “Sacred” and “Sacrilege” are offered as invitations to the viewer’s gaze.

On Dec. 3 at 7pm SUM gallery hosts a free public screening and Vancouver premiere of Sacred Sacrilegious, with Vaidya, Attariwala and Kingsbury in attendance, kicking off a ten-day mini-exhibition.

Film duration: 41 minutes

Note: Sacred Sacrilegious contains partial nudity.

Choreography/ Concept: Sujit Vaidya

Dancer: Sujit Vaidya

Videography and Editing: Robert Kingsbury

Sound Design: Parmela Attariwala

Outside Eye: Lee Su-Feh

Sacred Sacrilegious was made possible thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Anandam Dance Theatre.

Sacred Sacrilegious runs at SUM gallery Dec. 3 – 13.

SUM gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, noon – 6pm.

Register Here

ABOUT SUJIT VAIDYA

sujitvaidya.ca

My dance training is in a “traditional” dance form from India, called bharatanatyam. However, my way of engaging with the form is to situate my queerness within the rootedness of tradition and intergenerational knowledge. Some curiosities/ ideas I engage with around Body, Eroticism, Gaze, Queer shame, Queer intimacy and Stillness have been showing up in my work consistently. Slowing down movement and reclaiming/ re- aligning gaze around virtuosity through a non- Eurocentric lens interests me. I like to give the viewer the agency of meaning making. I’m not interested in putting across literal ideas. I like to sense and sculpt spaces for my audience’s imagination to inhabit. Rest, leisure, intimacy, stillness, gaze and erotic body are some themes I have explored in Sacred Sacrilegious.

“Traditional” bharatanatyam as practiced and performed today, is a practice of privileged able bodied persons from caste and class hierarchies. It caters to an Eurocentric gaze, with emphasis placed on physical virtuosity. My attempt in my works, including Sacred Sacrilegious, is to dismantle this gaze by using prolonged, sometimes uncomfortable silences to bring attention to the moment and invite ways of being present inside of it. – SV