The details of the 24 HAM for 2010 were released Wednesday morning at Eastern Edge Gallery on Harbour Drive, home of festival organizers. Throughout the presentation, the possibilities for participation in the celebration of all things contemporary art shone through.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Heidi Wagner will wrap trees with textiles, bringing the “Tree Cozy” to Bannerman Park and the public will be invited to wrap trees as well. Wagner will be at the park adding to the installation from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. throughout the festival.
The local Pick Me Up Artists Collective — a group of visual artists founded in 2008 — will have an audience-fuelled piece Aug. 21 at Eastern Edge where visitors finish this sentence: “I Love ...” As well, there will be lantern and mask making, a kids video dance party Aug. 20 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and there will be the “Summer Saunter” gallery and art studio tour from noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.
A map of galleries and artist studios included in the tour will be available at Eastern Edge.
Visiting artists will offer more opportunities for visitors to work their creative brains. Visual artist Stefanie Bruce will presenting a piece with partner Pasha Malla. Bruce is usually found displaying her work in Halifax and Toronto, but was at Eastern Edge gallery for the announcement Wednesday.
“We’re setting up a makeshift outdoor living room space (on Aug. 21). We’re inviting people to come into the space and look around and it’s important the space is domestic, because we’re hoping people will invite us into their home to share their stories with us,” she said. “We’re going to have paintings there of popular tourist sites. ... They’re all St. John’s-based. So everything’s about kind of giving us a more personal perspective of life in St. John’s. If you have a personal story you’d like to share about what’s represented, you’re welcome to take the painting and have it, with the idea that you will share your story with us.”
The pair plans to collect the stories provided to them for a chapbook based on their time in St. John’s.
“We’re inviting people to come into the space and look around and it’s important the space is domestic, because we’re hoping people will invite us into their home to share their stories with us.” - Stefanie Bruce on her upcoming 24 HAM Festival project
Another festival session of interest will be led by New York’s “video painting” art collective Sweatshoppe.
“I feel like a broken record, but Sweatshoppe is going to be really, really amazing,” Eastern Edge director Michelle Bush said. “They’ve developed their own software to be able to paint video on the walls.”
The software combines tracking and projection to “create the illusion that video is being applied to the surface,” states a profile provided on the group.
On top of the visual art in the festival, there will be music from a collection of local and visiting musicians. Among them are Matthew Hornell and the Diamond Mines, The Mudflowers and Ontario’s Diamond Rings. Manitoba’s VJ Mr. Ghosty-Skot Deeming will combine audio and visual, manipulating found footage and custom animation in connection with music.
For more on 24 HAM events, check out the festival blog or see the Etcetera page in Friday’s edition of The Telegram.
afitzpatrick@thetelegram.com
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