BIKE TOUR & WET SOUNDS 2024
ABOUT
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 8th
We were so excited to revisit our much beloved bicycle art tours, in fact, this was our first bike tour since 2021, as we took 2022 and 2023 to research and present our Public Sweat festival. It was a real pleasure to work with artists and see them bring their artworks to realization in ways that embrace both the challenges and rewards of what it means to work site-specifically. It was also so rewarding to see so many people turn out to support this programming format that we’ve become so well known for. As part of the usual thrill and mystery of the Art Spin bike tour experience, specific details about the programming and locations were kept secret until the day of the tour, but we did reveal information about a new programming initiative that saw us presenting a unique musical experience in a public pool for the first time.
We presented a new musical performance by Rudy Ray Kwaku, a tarp based installation by artist Moraa Stump, and a dance piece choreographed by Neil Lordson Tangcuangco. Finally, our bike tour ended at the Giovanni Caboto public pool where audience members were able to experience Wet Sounds, a unique underwater musical performance created by Joel Cahen.
Thank you to our amazing and ever personable emcee Shamez Amlani and DJ General Eclectic and his Boom Bike for providing the uplifting musical accompaniment along the course of the tour.
Thank you also to all of our volunteers, bike marshals, partners, collaborators and supporters who make Art Spin possible. This bike tour was presented with funding from the Ontario Arts Council.
ARTISTS & Creative Collaborators
Rudy Ray Kwaku, Naomi Higgins, Daniel Walsh, Moraa Stump, Margaret “Magz” Dila, Jennifer Choi, Nathan Parian, Neil Lordson Tangcuangco, Vanessa Dion Fletcher, Joel Cahen, Mira Martin-Gray, Olivia Shortt, Heidi Chan, Prince Nifty, Chris Foster
COMMISSIONED PROJECTS
RUDY RAY KWAKU
Untitled
Reminiscent of a 'jazz funeral' originating in New Orleans, cyclists passed by a brass trio led by Rudy Ray Kwaku, on trumpet, with Naomi Higgins on saxophone and Daniel Walsh on trombone. As we surrounded and passed by the trio in Prospect Cemetery, the bike tour itself became a funeral procession through the largest green space in the neighbourhood, one full of both life and death.
MORAA STUMP
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When we arrived at the little-known postmodern Innes St. bridge that spans the train tracks carving through the Earlscourt neighbourhood, cyclists came across a series of textile works made of recycled tarps, bags and other found materials, transforming the circular pedestrian ramps into multi-floor exhibition spaces.
For many, quilts conjure metaphors of domesticity, comfort and community building, which for others are privileged experiences. Inspired by the use of textiles in resistance movements (protest banners, suffragettes, and quilt codes), Moraa aims to bring attention to notions of the familiar, comfort and the mundane with questions of how marginalization can impact a sense of environmental safety and belonging. She endeavors to signal to those who may feel othered, soft metaphors for hard times.
NEIL LORD TANGCUANGCO
WE ARE GOOD
Performed by: Margaret “Magz” Dila, Jennifer Choi, Nathan Parian, Neil Lordson Tangcuangco
This dance performance took place in a dramatic industrial lot enclosed by a wall of lime green shipping containers. In the words of Neil, who directed and choreographed this moving performance, "This work explores the profound connection between a person and a cardboard box, using movement and dance as its expressive medium. Through a medley of songs, we delve into the dynamic interaction of movement within and beyond the box, discovering connections through different shapes and pathways. We examine how the manipulation of space influences not only movement but also emotion and narrative. The box, serving as a vessel, prompts us to reflect on its symbolic resonance with the human experience.
With an ensemble of four, we draw parallels between human emotions and the personification of "goods," echoing the journey of real-life objects that are stored, transported, and delivered within boxes as part of the vast global exchange.
Open to interpretation, We Are Good invites audiences to contextualize the performance, characters, and visuals within real-life scenarios, all centered around the meaningful presence of the cardboard box."
JOEL CAHEN
WET SOUNDS
Our bike tour ended at the Giovanni Caboto public pool for the Ontario premier of Wet Sounds. This project was born out of our long held desire to animate a pool with art programming and builds on curatorial interest around themes of bathing first explored in our Public Sweat festival. Wet Sounds is the brian child of UK-based artist Joel Cahen, using underwater and over water speakers installed at the Giovanni Caboto public pool, we welcomed audiences to don their swimsuits and be immersed in the multi-channel live performances by Joel Cahen (performing as PlutonOvarian), Mira Martin-Gray & Olivia Shortt. A second Wet Sounds performance took place that evening with performances by Heidi Chan & Prince Nifty.
Many thanks to The Music Gallery for co-presenting this project and programming the pairs of local artists invited to experiment and improvise together on the underwater sound system.
We are grateful to the City of Toronto's Parks, Forestry, and Recreation team, for working with us to bring a unique and alternative program to a public pool. We also wanted to thank and acknowledge artist Christie Pearson who’s memorable 2006 project Night Swim served as a massive source of inspiration to us!
vANESSA DION FLETCHER
SIZE MATTERS?
Floating in the pool as both an artwork and supporting flotation device, we were over the moon that Vanessa Dion Fletcher agreed to create some beaded works that use pool noodles as a material, made specially for this event.
Stemming from large scale models created to demonstrate beading techniques to students, these works brings a regularly miniature craft into new dimensions. While many beadwork artists become interested in their work shrinking, using smaller beads to achieve greater detail, Vanessa Dion Fletcher is scaling up, making the work more playful and approachable. By using these larger models in her teaching, beading is made more accessible to people of varied abilities, in keeping with Dion Fletcher's relationship and experience working in disability arts.
In the context of the public pool, where personal objects are often left behind, the works brings to mind a lost earring of immense scale, pointing humourously to the cultural obsession of wearing larger and larger beaded earrings.
CHRIS FOSTER
MOBILE SAUNA
This was the first time we were able to have the mobile sauna at a public pool, and it makes the perfect compliment to a chilly swim. While the weather was colder than hoped, and the sauna line was long, it was so great to see people using the sauna in a setting that reflects the ethos of our Public Sweat project. Thanks to artist Chris Foster who both built the Mobile Sauna, collaborates with us on Public Sweat, and kept the fires going throughout the event.
PHOTOS
Photos by Priam Thomas.
PARTNERS
Thank you to all of the volunteers, partners, collaborators and supporters who make Art Spin projects possible.
Wet Sounds was presented in collaboration with The Music Gallery.
We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
