A digital and performance installation that had its awakening in Orillia is on its way to the Venice International Art Fair in Venice, Italy.
Created by Arts Orillia artistic director Kate Hilliard, Story Creatures previewed at Creative Nomad Studios in Orillia on April 29, 2023.
“Story Creatures had a really long gestation. In 2018, I was doing a residency at Springboard Danse Montreal and had the opportunity to work with 15 professional dancers from all over the world,” explained Hilliard.
“I was thinking a lot about miscommunication and how it can be sometimes beautiful and sometimes horrific. I wanted to say a lot about movement as a language. We can communicate with our bodies, and sometimes body language can say more than words.
“There is a personal component there, too. My dad was an amazing conversationalist and then became aphasic after he had a stroke. I had to learn how to communicate with him all over again, then.”
Time went on and the global pandemic came to Canada.
“The project was put on hold during the pandemic, as all of our lives were,” said Hilliard. “Then, one day during that time, I wrote this weird little futuristic fable about the disappearance of stories. I saw the connection between this strange little fable and the development that had happened with the dancers in the studio, and Story Creatures began anew.”
Story Creatures is a post-apocalyptic tale about the world after a great melt, after it has died. Humans have stopped touching, stopped speaking. Then, a mother and son witness an awakening, and a cure rises from the vestiges of the ravaged planet.
“The story and the installation come from the pandemic, from my anxieties, anger, and depression as a mother, and a human,” said Hilliard. “The installation encompasses movement, light, sound, film, and words. Some incredible artists collaborated with me to make it what it is, and I owe them so much.”
She is hoping to travel to Venice this month to be at the opening of the curation, and has some tentative future plans for Story Creatures after Venice, as well.
“I am in discussion with people in Toronto, Ottawa, Australia, Lima and Germany to bring Story Creatures to venues in those cities,” she said. “Fingers crossed, some of these will come to fruition in 2024.”
Will Story Creatures be shown in Orillia again?
“I would really like to do that,” said Hilliard. “Creative Nomad Studios was a great place to preview it, and it was so kind of Anitta Hamming to take that risk and take on the show. She had never done an installation like that there before. Hopefully, there is a partnership that can be struck in Orillia to show it again.”
The book of Story Creatures, along with photos from the preview, can be viewed on Hilliard’s website.
