The Harbourfront's 2012 HATCH season continues with MORTIFIED. HATCH is the Harbourfront Centre's performing arts residency program, and this year they have collaborated with dancer/choreographer Jenn Goodwin and visual artist Camilla Singh. The pair have created MORTIFIED, an experimental experience of movement and mayhem. The two utilize mediums unfamiliar to them, like cheerleading, drums and tap dance, to connect with the audience and to facilitate a renegade concert. Throughout,Goodwin and Singh use their new skills to explore themes of tension and transition with an eye towards emotional states of being.
“We like the uncertainty that’s contained in this way of working,” says Singh. “It has lead to a method of being able to read the information that’s contained in something like a state of anxiety rather than being by controlled it, says Singh.
*Jenn Goodwin is from Burlington, Ont. She grew up playing with Barbie, listening to Black Sabbath, hosting make-out parties in her parents’ basement, and falling in love weekly. She moved to Montreal and received a BFA at Concordia University in Contemporary Dance with a minor in Video, and was at once thrilled and horrified by the amount of rolling around on the floor. Her dance work has been performed all over Canada, NYC, Amsterdam, Australia and Brussels. She was twice nominated for the KM Hunter Award in dance. Her short dance films have been screened at festivals across Canada, NYC and Europe. She also programs art and performances for Toronto Special Events, including Nuit Blanche.
*Camilla Singh builds things faithfully to her ideas and not always to a recurrent medium or form, and she shares Catherine Opie’s view that “…it’s transgressive just to try to live your life the way you actually want to live it.” Singh left her role as curator of Toronto’s MOCCA to experiment with materials in her studio and probe the questions that had formed around the experience of working in an office for decade. She is currently researching and producing a series of uniforms for curators called Uniforms for Non-Uniform Workwhich will comprise a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of York University in 2013, curated by Emelie Chhangur.
*HATCH 2012 runs from April 14 – May 5, 2012. Patrons can purchase a HATCH pass (includes tickets to all four productions) for $40, individual tickets for $15, or students/seniors/arts professionals $12. Visit the Harbourfront Centre website or call the box office at 416. 973.4000 for more information. Following each HATCH presentation, there is a Q&A and opportunity to engage and interact with the artists, as well as a post-show reception.
*ABOUT HATCH Now in its ninth year, HATCH is a key initiative in Harbourfront Centre’s mission to develop local artists and their unique practices. HATCH mentorship provides resources and professional assistance to contemporary artists looking to explore a new element of their practice. By giving the space and time for this to happen, Harbourfront Centre hopes to develop and grow the best new work coming out of Toronto. This season’s guest curator is Toronto-based performance artist Jess Dobkin.
*Information from the Harbourfront Centre Press Release
