(if you're a dancer)
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Hi, Art!

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Hi, Art!

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Hi, art lovers!

 
Film still from Future Futures. Interior of a white-walled home on the first floor. In the mid-century modern style, it boasts floor to ceiling windows revealing lots of green plants outdoors. A man descends a staircase. Behind him, a female figure wearing a dusty rose sweatsuit appears to

CBC Arts

 

If the technology existed, I'd say go ahead and add my consciousness to the cloud. Heck, if it’s possible, I’d like to download this messy brain into a giant robot (or maybe just a regular human-size one). If it’s warranty-protected, I’ll take whatever works. And if I can program my new exoskeleton to execute some sick dance moves, so much the better. 

Maybe that’s the privilege of a writing gig talking. I’m good so long as I’m healthy and able enough to keep pecking at my laptop, gradually developing scoliosis in the process (another reason to be pro-brain upload). But for someone whose passion and profession relies on their expertly trained body — a dancer, let’s say — I get why the premise of an increasingly virtual future might provoke an existential crisis. And that concept is the springboard for a new sci-fi series, arriving on CBC Gem this week.

Future Futures is a collection of five experimental dance films: fantasy stories about the beginning of a new era of human evolution. “Real” people have become obsolete in this imaginary world, and it’s possible to trade the meat suit you were born with for a superpowered digital replacement.

The show was created by Vancouver dance collective Company 605 through the Creation Accelerator program. Dreams in Vantablack, also on CBC Gem, was greenlit through the same initiative. According to one of Company 605's artistic directors (Josh Martin), the "digital migration" of the early lockdown served as creative fodder for the Future Futures team. As he explained in a statement, “The fact that we had this sci-fi project underway was so eerily timed and painfully relevant.… It felt like the future was now! We were asking ourselves: how will we bring our physical body with us into this inevitable digitally bound future? Or is it just something lost in our human evolution?”

Future Futures premieres Monday.

 

And because we promised you eye candy ...

 
Abstract artwork that appears blurry, suggesting the branches of a fruit tree, or branches with open eyes, visible through a gauzy purple window frame.

Azadeh Elmizadeh

Mother (Oracle) by Azadeh Elmizadeh. She’s one of the artists taking part in the Plumb’s annual fundraiser, and the same goes for …

 
Vibrant figurative portrait of a young woman in an amber coloured knit turtleneck, rendered in a surrealistic style. She stands in front of a mountainous backdrop, rendered in rainbow colours. Her face is consumed with three dimensional renderings of bright green leaves and blue orbs and pink and gold squiggles.

Nicole Crozier

… Toronto artist Nicole Crozier.
 
Black and white photo collage. The bottom half is a seated figurative statue, possibly Rodin's Thinker. The top half is a blurry grey landscape view seen from between two black rocks.

Robin Arseneault

‘Tis the season for annual fundraisers, it seems. Gallery TPW in Toronto is running its annual Photorama sale through Dec. 3, and this print by Robin Arseneault is among the works available.
 
Pastel-hued portrait of a woman wearing rainbow pastel gauzy fabric. She looks over her shoulder at the viewer. A pale yellow desert and blue sky stretches before her. She is painted in an arch-shaped frame.

Rihab Essayh

A view from the dwelling by Rihab Essayh. She has an exhibition at Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto through Dec. 17.
 
 

You've got to see this

 
 
 
Crop of a photo by Rajni Perera. Reveals a close-up image of a brown woman wearing a full-face gas mask that's been adorned with fabric, beads and trip. She holds a white-gloved hand up, palm out, as if in greeting.
Rajni Perera

Making space in outer space: Rajni Perera's sci-fi odyssey lands at the McMichael

 
Her new exhibition (Futures) is a million light years away from the Group of Seven, and that’s a good thing. See it now through May 7.
 
Three people sit on white vinyl couches on a lilac-backdropped video set. They smile at each other. A white Ikea coffee table covered with a fuzzy white rug, camcorders and coffee mugs, is in front of them.
CBC Arts

Bilal Baig and Grace Lynn Kung on the comforting mission of Sort Of

 
The co-stars dish on their series’ success and what’s in store for Season 2.
 
A young woman with dark straight hair DJs in a club surrounded by other young people.

Courtesy of Jayemkayem

 

How to quit your job and DJ full time

 
Calgary-raised artist Jayemkayem tells the story of how she did just that.
 

Follow this artist

 
 
 
Instagram

Simone Elizabeth Saunders

@simoneelizabethtextiles
Detail of a textile portrait of a Black woman with an afro hairstyle adorned with big blue flowers. She stands in front of a circular mandala motif, also made of tufted yarn.

Simone Elizabeth Saunders

Simone’s work has appeared in this newsletter a few times before, and if you already love her Instagram, seeing her work up close and in person is a whole different experience. I chatted with the Calgary artist the other week after visiting her show at the Textile Museum of Canada in downtown Toronto. (It’s there through Jan. 29.)
 

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I’m Leah Collins, senior writer at CBC Arts. Until next time!

 
XOXO CBC Arts
XOXO CBC Arts
 
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