Let’s start with An Invitation.  This series of pop up book was conceived to invite individuals to take on the custodianship of the animatronic figures from Wilderness Adventure Ride at Ontario Place. After spending nine years exploring and helping develop their narrative it was time to pass on this responsibility.

I have always felt that the visual arts are limited. Unlock music, dance, and theatre which all have scores or scripts the visual arts are typically chiselled in stone - you have your object - end of story. But with scores and scripts you have a blueprint which can be taken up, interpreted and staged. New voices. New takes, new interpretations. Why not allow that to happen in the visual arts? Pass on a work. Let someone else pick up where you left off. That is what we have decided to do with Still. Pass on the  custodianship of the figures to others not necessarily visual artists but choreographers, composers, playwrights.  The pop up books are our invitation.

To speak to An Invitation to an Invitation. We made the pop up books and have been inviting various individuals to come to view the books at the studio. Typically an email invitation is sufficient but in some cases our email slips between the cracks and we get no response. I often feel a little nudge is required to gain someone’s attention. Something that catches someone’s eye. Here is an opportunity to make a new work. Thus an Invitation to an Invitation.

PS We did mail out both of these works and to date have had no response.