Duet, a large-scale project Laiwan recently developed while participating in the Sound & Vision Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, incorporates both an interactive gallery installation and a live music performance based on improvisational practices of jazz. In partnership with YYZ Artists' Outlet, Images will present both components of Duet: the installation and a related performance. The sculptural gallery work contains two doubleńsided projection screens, connected to computerized music keyboards. Projected on each screen is the image of Susie Ibarra or Lori Freedman improvising, with each musician filmed while playing solo. Viewers can "play" each set of video
through the keyboards.
Laiwan is an interdisciplinary artist and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Born in what is now Zimbabwe to Chinese parents, she immigrated to Canada in 1977 to leave the war in Rhodesia. A graduate of Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Laiwan started the OR Gallery in Vancouver in 1983 and has since initiated various curatorial projects in both Canada and Zimbabwe. Laiwan has participated in a variety of exhibitions in Canada, the US, Japan and Europe as well as being involved in gay, lesbian, feminist and 'of colour' community-based organizing. She also engages in public discourse through panel discussions, conferences and symposiums and gives solo lectures at a variety of venues including galleries, universities and art programs.
Also at YYZ, March 11 to April 22:
Toronto artist Kristan Horton presents a video installation that features a
series of everyday objects morphing into other everyday objects. The morphs
have been produced by hand rather than through the employment of digital
techniques.
