Interactive Art Installation at Bradley Museum, Mississauga
Artistic Director Collen Snell (Choreography/Dance)
Artistic Director Noelle Hamlyn (Textile Art)
Presented by: Port Credit Village Project
Supported by: City of Mississauga Culture Division, Museums of Mississauga,
and the Art Gallery of Mississauga
“Featuring the work of Mississauga textile artist Noelle Hamlyn and choreographer/dancer Colleen Snell. The “Winding Road” project is presented as a metaphor of weaving as community, and to consider the small but important role Port Credit plays in the larger fabric of Canadian identity. Partnering with the Port Credit Village Project, City of Mississauga Culture Division, Museums of Mississauga, and the Art Gallery of Mississauga, “Winding Road” exists to weave our community with intentionality. This project is a hybrid form combining elements of dance and textile art to evoke metaphor, create a strong tactile experience and produce a densely layered narrative.” (Heritage Mississauga)
The Idea
Artistic Directors Colleen Snell and Noelle Hamlyn came up with the idea for Winding Road after a meeting held by a local grassroots organization, the Port Credit Village Project. At that meeting they were inspired to consider ways they might share and make public art. As they discussed, a metaphor began to take shape, and that metaphor was the Winding Road. Noelle suggested audience members could each take a thread and walk with it to create a large art piece. This would demonstrate how the fabric of community is made up of individual contributions which together create a whole. Colleen suggested this process was a dance.
The Winding Road project appeared on an outdoor stage at the Bradley Museum (National Youth Arts Week), at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Massive Party 2013), and at the Art Gallery of Mississauga (AGM) in September 2013.
Project Description
This interdisciplinary work is a site-specific performance installation involving contemporary dancers and thousands of meters of thread. The creative intent is to capture the paths we take through space and the everyday spatial patterns created by coming and going. The performance uses a large-scale warping board (typically used on a smaller scale in weaving), to create the image of a woven wall or fence. The project considers the paths we take over and over and the importance we attach to demarcating boundaries. Winding Road is a project adaptable to many sites; the piece can be an ongoing, evening-length installation or a five-minute performance piece. It can be viewed from all directions and has the potential to illicit audience participation. Winding Road is a celebration of community, an innovative hybrid of forms, and a visually captivating exploration of territory, collaboration and community.
(Frog in Hand)
