This Sum­mer, I had the good for­tune to pho­to­graph the Second Annual Time Squared event for Gal­lery 101. Artists are crazy folk, and per­form­ance artists are a spe­cial breed. I had a lot of fun, even though I was soaked through and through by pour­ing rain at the end of the day.

Per­form­ance art is a tricky thing to do under any cir­cum­stances, and a tricky thing to pho­to­graph.  The work is fleet­ing and exper­i­en­tial. An essen­tial part of the per­form­ance is the rela­tion­ship between the per­former, the sur­round­ings, and the audi­ence, so that in a sense, the audi­ence is a part of the art­work. I’ve always con­sidered pho­to­graphy to be a bit of a per­form­ance art. On that day, there happened to be a giant per­form­ance of the cere­mo­nial guard at Par­lia­ment Hill, dir­ectly across the street from the G101 event. They had can­nons and all, it was a real pro­duc­tion. It was the kind of thing that makes artists, most who are already neur­otic, totally insane. We had to roll with it, and in the end, I think the crazi­ness of it all it made the day a little bit better.

Look­ing back, I think that I made sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress this sum­mer. My pic­tures were big­ger, bet­ter, and more fre­quent than the sum­mer before. Sum­mer ’08 was the sum­mer I moved away from my home town. It was also the sum­mer I moved back. I came back to Chin­atown, to where I grew up, after almost a dec­ade in exile.

Com­ing home was as big a big deal as leav­ing was, and it shows in my pho­tos. I’ve been work­ing on a pro­ject about the idea of home for a long time, and I feel like the pic­tures from this year have moved this pro­ject for­ward. The next step will be to take the pro­ject fur­ther, into the com­munity. Stay tuned.

Three pic­tures from the “Home” series will be on dis­play at the Car­leton Uni­ver­sity Art Gal­lery this month as part of a group show. I’ve been work­ing with the gal­lery over the past few months, and it is a pleas­ure and a priv­ilege to show there.

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Gal­lery Information:

HERE — The Car­leton Uni­ver­sity Art Gal­lery Show

7 – 10 Novem­ber 2008
Car­leton Uni­ver­sity Art Gal­lery, St. Patrick’s Build­ing
Open­ing recep­tion: Fri­day, 7 Novem­ber, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m.