Monique Levesque/Collapsing Opposites/ Whose Museum/ European Tour 2010

@ Wild West Active Space, Maastricht, Limberg, Netherlands

Nicholas Matranga w/ Apollo Ghosts, Little Mountain Gallery, Vancouver, B.C.

photo by steve louie

Summer 2009 - Object for Passive Light Show (Peripheral Performance 2)

We have an article in Front Magazine about the new installation by Emiliano.

Here's some information from Emiliano himself:

"The first variation of Object For A Passive Light Show was one that arose from the process of collecting the light around the performance space of various Collapsing Opposites shows by constantly walking around the performance space. All of this light was something that I used to make an experiential map of the different performances and the walks themselves became a peripheral performance to the one happening onstage.

The maps however took the form of monochromes where all the information gathered emerged simultaneously in a way that made the information impossible to read, and the experience of the various performances becomes impossible to transmit via the photographic prints.

Instead these prints appeared on the drum head in the form of unprocessed photo-paper that was still sensitive to light, surrounded by lenticular plastic which reflected and refracted the light around it onto the paper. The whole structure was intended to change as it absorbed more and more light during the various performances. The force of the kick drum however was such that it changed the piece incredibly drastically.

For the second iteration of this project, titled, Object For a Passive Light Show (Peripheral Performance 2), another reflective/refractive structure was constructed around the same unprocessed photo paper. This second version was again intended to react to the light around the band during their performance but also perform itself with the constant vibrations of the kick drum. These side performances would then compete with that of Collapsing Opposites but in a way that would go by generally unnoticed."

Emiliano Sepulveda & Dwight Koss: March 2009

w/ Collapsing Opposites and Bob Wiseman @ the Western Front - March 29, 2009

Thanks to Emiliano Sepulveda for contributing his spectacular photo-lenticular structure Object for Passive Light Show and to Dwight Koss for his hand-crafted kinetic cymbal statue, Dancer.

Emiliano's piece is the result of his having attended Collapsing Opposites shows as the "official band photographer," for period of several months. For this project he captured light on film at various shows while walking within audible distance of the band playing. Object for Passive Light Show consists of these photographs in a prolonged state of development. The process is encapsulated by geometric forms made using lenticulars which distort and refract the surrounding light into uncontainable prisms and abstractions. During the sound check the object burst into pieces due to the force of the kick drum being played. Emiliano was pleased that it blew up, commenting that it added another dimension to the transmogrification inherent to the work.

"Time is the ultimate destroyer of everything.
If you give it time, it will kill you too." - Time=Zero / Collapsing Opposites

In keeping with the theme of destruction Dwight's Dancer graced the stage eloquently for the duration of the set, providing the moves to make a seated audience jealous. She danced throughout the night, only to arrive home with a broken leg and detached arm. But that's nothing that can't be fixed. The show was a great success.

Who Wants to Draw on the Drum?

Molly Does!



Low Decibel Festival @ the Shed - January 31, 2009

For this show we invited anyone in the audience to draw on the drum. Most people were too shy, except for Molly Matusicky, she ran up and started drawing straight away!

Bio:
My name is Molly Matusicky, I am in grade three and I love drawing. I love animals - especially cats and dogs. I love camping at Blue Lake. I like to watch movies. My two favorite friends are Chiara and Bijou, they are both very funny. I like to draw odd things like dogs with beaks and girls hanging on to a helium balloons floating away. I love to play videos games.

Melissa Cartwright, Rebecca LaMarre, Avery Nabata - September - December 2008

First ever group show and it will be traveling across Canada!
For dates see www.collapsingopposites.com

Melissa Cartwright is an artist, shoe designer and burlesque producer. She studied textiles at NSCAD University and shoe construction at F.I.T. in New York City. Melissa creates wearable art using hand embroidery, ribbons & ruffles, polka dots & snaps. She is currently employed as a designer for John Fluevog Shoes in Vancouver, B.C.

www.melissacartwright.com/

Rebecca LaMarre is a recent graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art & Design. She is interested in text and it's ability to make maximum impact with only modest output. She encourages audience participation and likes to think her practice exists somewhere in the blurry boundary between cultural inquiry and art.


www.rlamarre.wordpress.com

Avery Nabata grew up in Vancouver, B.C. and was born during Expo '86. Her art practice focuses primarily on sculpture and installation, investigating areas pertaining to space and time. She paints houses for a living and is currently a student at the Emily Carr University of Art & Design.

www.sites.google.com/site/forevereverh/

Sean Maxey: July-September 2008

Prawn is the Ultimate Aphrodisiac - Sean Maxey

July 19, 2008 - Corner Tandoori w/ Collapsing Opposites, Adrian Teacher, Elton Bong, JPMP, Candles

August 7, 2008 - Hoko's Sushi Bar w/ Collapsing Opposites, The Phrenologists & Kill the Buddha

September 20, 2008 - The Railway Club - Collapsing Opposites/ Bible Belts 7 inch Release Party w/ Greenbelt Collective


Symptoms tend to develop rapidly although the initial presentation can be delayed and/or deceptively mild. You may become uneasy, upset and red in the face. You may also develop a rapid heartbeat, prickling and itchiness in the skin, throbbing in the ears, sneezing, coughing and difficulty breathing. Shock may then follow, in which blood vessels become leaky, blood pressure falls and you could become cold, clammy and faint.

www.neptuna.com

Chrystal Fisher: May - July 2008

Conversions and Equivalents -- Chrystal Fisher

May 6 @ The Plaza - Vancouver, BC
w/ Better Friends than Lovers, The Trucks, Northern State

May 9 @ The Astoria, Vancouver, BC
w/ You Say Party! We Say Die!, Wintermitts, Better Friends than Lovers

June 21 @ Hoko’s Sushi Bar, Vancouver, BC
w/ Collapsing Opposites, Mt. Royal, Women, Ok Vancouver Ok

People have explored many tasks in order to enhance knowledge production. Composers imagined a world of mixed senses where sounds evoked colours. Quattrocento Italian painters and merchants studied geometry in order to demonstrate their cleverness and wit. Roleplaying types use a twenty-sided die to gauge their moves as successes or failures. An amateur magician, facing blindness, made the world a brighter place. This set of circumstances inevitably led to Fisher's elusive containment of a medium that oscillates while circumnavigating the drum.

Yule Log & Collapsing Opposites

photos by Fred A. Hatfield

Fight Fire With Fire @ little mountain studios

Yule Log (part deux?) from mairin deery on Vimeo.



FIGHT FIRE WITH FIRE - Mairin Deery

march 29, 2008 @ little mountain studios - vancouver, bc 8pm
with performances by collapsing opposites, russian words, b.a. johnston, brent randall and his pinecones, international falls

wood is a combustible material that has been used to construct many possessions: forts, paper, musical instruments, among others. common perceptions of this substance can be disguised and detached from the root. there is a tendency to view the urban museum as indestructible, even though decomposition is inevitable for a spliced up tree. transformation may take years and change form several times before successfully eliminating source materials. what goes up may burn down. mairin deery's yule log, a stop-animated fireplace made of felt, projects a latent fire on the front of a kick drum, instigating a conflagration of the senses.

for more info:
mdeery@eciad.ca

Call for Submissions (ongoing)

four on the floor projects aims to provide an intimate traveling space for the production and display of new forms of visual art. Exhibitions are hosted on the kick drum of a fully functioning set of drums, and are featured on stage in live performances with several touring Vancouver based bands. Information on the artist and their work is made available to audiences at shows.

Submissions of any sort are encouraged, and may include: a painted or collaged drum head, a fabric wrap, assemblage/installation, and so on.

Work should be suited for a drum head with a 22 inch diametre.
Those selected will be offered a 3 month showcase on the drum.

Please send proposals to fouronthefloorprojects@gmail.com
and include a description of the proposed work, brief bio, and images or a link to your work (c.v. optional)

The Story

In October of 2007 I met Lindsay Dobbin of the Halifax band - Play Guitar , through a chance encounter -- she was living in the apartment above a friend's place, where my band was crashing while on tour. In search of a password to their wireless I went up to talk to her and in the process realized she was also a drummer and had just finished painting her bass drum head for an upcoming show at the Halifax Pop Explosion. I loved the drum head so much that I asked if she would paint one for me in time for my band's show (coincidentally also at the Pop Explosion). She agreed! Her image of "Catras" was immediately admired by many and added so much to the life of my drums that it prompted me to start this project.

four on the floor projects began in January 2008 with an open call for submissions to hold rotating exhibitions on the front of my kick drum. Thanks to Lindsay for the inspiration and to Catras for being such a great mascot for this endeavour.