Song For A Blue Moon, 2004

Episodic in structure, Song For A Blue Moon included four digital visual, spoken and musical songs of praise to peace. The audio was spatialized amongst 8 speakers.

Part 1 Song For A Blue Moon – spoken & sung text, music, dance, video and still image projections mixed live with Max/MSP and Jitter software

A rapturous poem of transformation, from a dark fall of despair into the arms of the Beloved and the birth of a new world of peace. The visual images are of landscape (waterfalls and moss), dripping honey and the artist’s body.

Part 2 Aung San Suu Kyi – spoken text and projections from the world wide web

About the Burmese democracy activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The text expresses awe and respect and recounts events in the life of Aung San Suu Kyi .  The central action is the laying of fabrics printed with photographs interpreting traditional Buddhist offerings.

Part 3 Eskenoôpetitj – recorded music and live voice, video
composer: Wende Bartley (commissioned)

About the 1999-2000 dispute of the Eskenoôpetitj First Nation of New Brunswick with the Government of Canada. The song is in three parts and three voices. The first is text from the Treaty of 1752 – the Treaty of Peace and Friendship Renewed, outlining the Crown’s obligations to the Mi’kmaq, followed by an epilogue. The second part is based on conversations the artist had with two women on the Eskenoôpetit reserve in the summer of 2002 and the third is the artist’s reflection. The videotape is edited footage shot by the Christian Peacemaker Team during the dispute and was obtained with the permission of the community of Eskenoôpetitj.

Part 4 Red-Tail – recorded music and text, dance, video and still image projections mixed live with Max/MSP and Jitter software
composer: Darren Copeland (commissioned)

Based on self-immolation as an act of protest, fire as an image of transformation and re-birth in the symbol of a bird rising from fire. It begins with text based on the letter to the U.S. government written by Nhat Chi Mai, a lay Buddhist woman who self-immolated as a protest against the Vietnamese war. The wing of a red-tailed hawk is revealed in a golden box and its microphone captures live the sound of it moving through space.

Performance history:
Première at Tangente Danse Actuelle, Montréal, September 16, 2004
Workshop (Parts 1, 2 & 3) at Niagara Artists Centre, St. Catharines, 2002
Workshops under the title Falling Body, Burning Sky:
Part 2 at Older & Reckless, (MoonHorse Dance Theatre), Toronto, 2000
Part 1 at Anatomic Cabaret of the Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, Toronto and Peterborough New Dance

Part 2 was later performed for Amnesty International Group 112 Niagara Region’s Human Rights Day Vigil, St. Catharines in 2007; Sound and Video Art for the Rights, Latvian House, Toronto in 2008
Part 3 was later performed for Social Justice and the Arts Forum, Brock University, St. Catharines in 2007

Lighting Design: Chris Clifford
Sound: Darren Copeland
Live Jitter mix in Montreal: Joe Lapinski