March 3 – April 15, 2023
The Main Gallery
Opening Reception: Friday March 3rd, 7 -10 pm
Free admission
The End of the World // The Birth of the World is a meditation on a future we hope to escape from. This two-part experimental dance film project has been envisaged, visually designed, and directed by Brad Necyk (St. Albert-based and nationally renowned multi-media artist), in collaboration with Gary James Joynes (a nationally and internationally celebrated Edmonton-based, award-winning composer, sound designer, and visual intermedia artist) and the internationally renowned Van Grimde Corps Secrets Dance Company from Montréal. This immersive multi-media project is enhanced with the artwork of aAron Munson, Marilène Oliver, and Veronika Marks – multi-disciplinary artists from Edmonton.
This project stems out of earlier works that Joynes and Necyk began in 2019: Kingdom of Illumination (8-channel immersive installation) and two films: Joshua Tree and Avatar’s Dream. These minimalist experimental films investigate and explore several ideas of landscape, climate change, science-fiction, and the future of the Earth, with Joshua Tree and Avatar’s Dream falling closer to Solarpunk, while The End of the World // The Birth of the World falling somewhere between Lunarpunk and Cyberpunk.
The End of the World (22 minutes) is a journey from our current point and the beginning of visible effects of climate change: loss of biodiversity, extreme weather events, and loss on loss. It begins as a compelling affirmation of life in a lush natural world, as two humans express themselves at the end of the world.
The Birth of the World (25 minutes) begins sometime in the future: time passes, and time passes again. We are sometime after the Fall; the landscape is barren and harsh. We are witnessing the birth of a new world. Two survivors connect and try to heal each other as they are sole witnesses to the beginning of a brave new world.
Credits:
Director: Brad Necyk
Visual Design: Brad Necyk
Original Music Score, Sound Design and Mixing, Modular Synthesizer, Bass Guitar and Vocals: Gary James Joynes
Commissioned and co-produced by Van Grimde Corps Secrets, Montréal.
Comprised of unpublished rushes from Eve 2050: The Web Series and motion capture data from Eve 2050: The Virtual Reality Prototype.
Artists’ Biographies
Brad Necyk is a visual artist and writer whose practice focuses on mental illness, empathy, consciousness, and flourishing. He recently completed a research-creation PhD in Psychiatry at the University of Alberta, and his doctoral research was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal. Brad’s first book of poetry on mental illness, art, and healing, titled ALL SKY, MIRROR OCEAN: A Healing Manifesto, will be published in 2023. Brad Necyk is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at York University in Cinema and Media Arts, creating artistic works, poetry, and films on addiction and organ transplantation.
Gary James Joynes (a.k.a. Clinker) is a nationally and internationally celebrated Edmonton-based, award-winning composer, sound designer, and visual intermedia artist. Gary has been active for several years in the international live audio-visual and experimental music performance community. He blends the beauty and physicality of sounds auditory and visual elements in Live Cinema AV performances and in rigorous and emotionally compelling photo and video installation works. The most recent chapter in Joynes’s audio-visual catalogue presented a large-scale solo installation work entitled Broken Sound at dc3 Art Projects in Edmonton in May of 2015. Broken Sound was awarded the 2016 Eldon and Ann Foote Edmonton Visual Art Prize for best solo art show in 2015. His critically acclaimed work Ouroboros had its large-scale premiere as a featured work in the City Hall at the inaugural Nuit Blanche Edmonton Festival in September 2015. Gary’s forthcoming visual-sound installation entitled Sonic Suns and the Faraday Phenomenon (THEARC) will premiere in October 2023 at the Peter Robertson Gallery in Edmonton.
Isabelle Van Grimde – the choreographer, founder, and Artistic Director of the Montréal’s Van Grimde Corps Secrets Dance Company – is a trailblazing figure in international experimental dance community. Her interdisciplinary collaborations have expanded the horizons of contemporary dance, opening up a wide range of possible perceptions of the body and staged choreographic work. Particularly, she is well-known for her high-quality dialogue between dance and music and, since 2008, for the harmonious integration of new technologies. An open-minded artist-researcher, she conducts basic and applied research on the body, which fuels her artist approach.
She expands her presentation territory by taking her work beyond theaters and into art galleries, public sites, and online. In 2011, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded her the Jacqueline Lemieux Prize in recognition of her outstanding contributions to experimental dance in Canada and abroad.
Top Image: The Birth of the World (detail), video still.
Photo courtesy of the artist
Presenting Partner:
