from Christopher Willes on Vimeo.

Part of 'BRICK' an exhibition, workshop and performance residency, programmed by Feminist Art Museum at the Gardiner Museum

Artist Christopher Willes has invited a group of musicians, dancers, artists, and actors to develop a new performance of “To Valerie Solanas and Marilyn Monroe in Recognition of Their Desperation”, an orchestral work which first premiered in 1970 by the celebrated American composer Pauline Oliveros. Organizing as an experimental orchestra that consists of musicians and non-musicians alike, the group includes notable artists such as Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Ame Henderson, Anni Spadafora, Brendan Jensen, Claire Harvie, Ellen Furey, Evan Webber, Germaine Liu, Ishan Davé, Paul Chambers, and Thomas Gill.​

About Feminist Art Museum

The Feminist Art Museum (FAM) is conceived of by curators Xenia Benivolski and Su-Ying Lee as a national, multi-site pilot project. FAM will use brick as a metaphoric and material reference to create a space for dialogue on institution building, place, space, and land.

FAM asks: What are ways of being on the land that have been supplanted by colonialism and patriarchy? What knowledge can institutions and culture makers access if seeking to approach these projects with a socio-political consciousness? Visitors to the Gardiner Museum are invited to participate in the symbolic building and disseminating gesture by contributing and bringing in their own bricks, which will become part of the installation in the gallery. The formation of the brick pile will take form over the course of the project as it grows.

Amid the installation, the exhibition hall will also host “riot rock rattles” made in a workshop facilitated by artist Tsēma Igharas, and public rehearsals led by artist Christopher Willes of Pauline Oliveros’ “Sonic Meditations” to consider the sonic as a way to take up space.