INSTRUCTIONS AND RULES: how to follow the rules, and how to break them | Week 4 of 12
Saturday, February 20, 2021
ARTISTS:
Alex Felicitas
Caitlind Brown
Suzen Statz
Who Cares? (Laura Reid & Jiajia Li)
Wayne Garrett
THEME BY: Jennifer Crighton
The 4th official theme of The Hibernation Project was brought forward by local artist and musician, Jennifer Crighton. In a time characterized by prolonged health and safety regulations (and subsequent kickback), Jennifer’s theme INSTRUCTIONS & RULES: how to follow the rules and how to break them invited artists to playfully subvert interactive instructions, creating “a game of rules and adaptations.” Drawing connections with Yoko Ono’s instructional artworks, and Jennifer’s previous Birthday Cake Bake-a-Long, INSTRUCTIONS & RULES blurred the line between artist and audience, and everyone following or breaking rules becomes an active participant.
The first artists to participate were Laura Reid & Jiajia Li (collaboratively known as Who Cares?) The duo performed a series of improvised, interchanging solos. The first was a throwback to Laura Reid’s performance in a Hibernation event from early 2020, SYNAESTHESIA. The artists firmly planted a colour in their heads, and then attempted to perform the colour. Audience members were invited to guess what colour the music was emulating. (Can you guess before they reveal it?)
Who Cares? went on to perform several compositions by experimental composer, accordionist, and electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros. The above performance, 13 Changes, draws from a textual score by Oliveros where musicians respond to poetic fragments of text rather than traditional sheet music.
The second participatory artwork of the evening was a drawing game with artist Alex Felicitas, inviting folks to try their hand at a quick draw duel to determine who was The Best in the West!
Part competition and part collaboration, these drawings became as bizarre as the mood of the evening, offering a digital twist on the familiar classic of drawing games at the pub or Breakfast Party gatherings.
Up next, Suzen Statz officially defined the evening as a pickle-themed affair with her interactive knitting pattern, Picklehead.
Knitters from near and far were invited to follow the pattern created by Suzen – a comical, nipple-studded, fluorescent-coloured, head warmer available on Ravelry. Suzen shared tips, tricks, and philosophies about knitting and craft as knitters cast on together. When the evening divided into Breakout rooms, a group of knitters gathered in one room to continue building their Pickleheads.
Throughout the evening, a series of pop-ups were released by Caitlind Brown, subverting the “poll” function of Zoom and inviting participants to play a virtual game of Truth or Dare. Intended to offer possibilities both to “follow the rules” and “break them,” these pop-ups simulated the adolescent non-sequetors of kids at a sleepover, testing the edges of what’s allowed.
Participants were offered one final preview, before the event fractured into breakout rooms. Back by popular demand from Hiber National Gallery last year, Wayne presented Photoshop Phantasea – part comedy, part photoshopping by committee, and 100% bizarre dreamscape eye candy.
With images submitted ad hoc by Zoom audiences, Wayne pieced together subjects and worlds for a “live studio audience,” resulting in these strange, highly mediated compositions.
Thank you to the audience and artists from INSTRUCTIONS & RULES, and to Jennifer Crighton for setting the theme of the night!
THE HIBERNATION PROJECT 
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