The location of this performance was a former Trappist monastery, and so I chose to work with the monks' daily life in the monastery.
“The State of Breath” was a two-week residency at St. Norbert Arts Centre, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, located on the site of a former Trappist monastery, in the heart of Métis country. The project was organized by the Toronto, Ontario organization, FADO, bringing together five durational performance artists: Paul Couillard, Ed Johnson, Louise Liliefeldt of Toronto; Alastair MacLennan of N. Ireland; and myself.
In advance of our first meeting, we had agreed to each create a performance which would include the four other participants. It was also assumed that the work would be of a site specific nature. For me that meant that I would try to respond in some way to the history of the site. The first week was spent in conversation and research, as we each developed our performances, and the second week we presented the work.
I decided to work with the idea of the Trappist monks’ daily life in the monastery. It seemed possible to make certain connections between their lives and my practice as an artist, and even more specifically to our lives as artists-in-residence at the Arts Centre that now occupies the site. This was the understanding that finally gave me a framework to use in designing an experience for a group of artists.
Working within a structure of hourly tasks, I provided instructions for activities designed for contemplation. The artists actions were private, and nearly invisible. Three times the performers gathered to eat. These meals were also visual presentations: a white meal on a white covered table, with myself dressed in white serving. The four other artists sat with me along one side of the table, which provided both a clear view of the vista for us to contemplate while we were eating, and also giving the audience a formal presentational image of the silent communal meal. I also served food to the audience, sharing the meal with them.
The performers’ instructions for the event were written into small notebooks which contained additional blank pages for writing. They also had small cards to hand out to any audience they encountered, on which were printed, “please join us in a day of silence.” The artists did not know in advance what they would be asked to do, and had agreed not to look ahead at the next instruction until they heard the ringing of the bell marking the hour. Finally, I told them the performance was for themselves, and that they weren’t obligated to tell me about their experience.
The performance was 15 hours and 55 minutes long. It began at sunrise, at 5:37 am, and ended at sunset, at 9:32 pm.
