Tag Archives: performance art
July 13, 2022 Stretching Through Dimensions Like Lions Tied by Spheres
WE are driven to push forwards, innovate, change, contribute to a questioning of old, outworn modes and to bring in new perspectives on the higher levels of consciousness – faze out the systems of separation and work to introduce new, inclusive ways of operating in unity.
As spirit we know that there are no true boundaries between human beings, there is no separation. We all come from the same source, and we have incarnated as any imaginable variation of human being throughout our long existence – we have all been black and white at different times, we have all been women and men – and spirit wants us to remember this. From their perspective war and conflict on earth is due to the illusion of separation – based in the idea of one group of human beings as essentially different from or superior to another. In spirit we are all the same.
Two perfect pieces of the most beautiful creation ever seen – the whole, you together in harmony like up and down, back and front, sky and earth, fire and water.
Stretching through dimensions to each other like lions tied by spheres from star to star. Animalistic yet angel-winged. We come together. Brutal/soft. Hard flying. Comedowns nowhere. We stay up, fly together.
Time means nothing in spirit but I’ve never been the patient type. I am a man/I am a woman/I am spirit/I am time/I am an eternally fading/exploding star. She is herself yet she is me. I am her yet I am myself. We are ancient yet children. Thousands of lives. Always each other.
Tags: haus of dada, lisa anita wegner, performance art, performance artist, Toronto
July 13, 2022 The Role of The Artist in Society
I believe every child is born an artist, and retains creative urges even into an adult life where it seems they may have been lost. During dark times, it is our role as artists to dream up the future and propose new ideas of what’s possible for the future; and then make our dreams resonate with others, to spark their dormant imaginations.
The theme that runs through my work is Liberation Through Dreaming, and I use my stories and art to tell hard stories elegantly and with humour to bring attention to poverty, disability and social injustice. Through comedy and absurdity, I invite the audience into my crip universe, where we all can be stars and agents of change; and our imaginations are nurtured so that we can thrive and dazzle.
Being on ODSP and living below the poverty line has opened my eyes to the harsh realities of disabled life in Toronto. I want to dazzle the public with my otherworldly art, to spread awareness to foster change. I want to propose brand new ways of thinking and doing things, and welcome others to dream of a future where disabled folx are nurtured and cared for, not discriminated against and hidden away. The more people I can reach and invite to join my dreaming, the stronger the creative force for change will become.
As a public artist, I also want to astonish people with magic in unexpected places. Particularly in the current climate of fear and anger growing in the shadow of the global pandemic, I believe that putting art out into the world – free and equally available to everyone – is the way to uplift people and restore faith.
Tags: accessability, Canadian Art, lisa anita wegner, performance art, tangled art + disability
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April 25, 2017 Road to Human Realignment
“I am working on a performance film series called Metamorphosis Human Realignment. This physical stretching practise has changed my life and now through that doorway I am creating a piece in which I tell the truth with my body. I am very excited about this work.”
After speaking at Open Show Toronto about two of my therapy videos I have become even more aware of the clear path my body of work is taking.
I created the Fictitious History of the Haus of Dada as a therapeutic art practise and the bulk of my film and performance work has stemmed from it. After using persona and then the Dada movement as parameters I now feel compelled to strip everything down and tell my story with my body. I’ll talk a bit about that in a moment.
I started here in 2008 when I was still very sick. I made this Eva and Bobby video series in my home with iMovie and started to find my voice
Mama Dada was going to host the installation but that didn’t feel right. Thin(k) Blank Human was born that night.
The work progressed with a library of videos like Marry The Night
A Collaboration with Steve Weiss and Leslie Barton
A solo performance at The Mod Club in Toronto
Thin(k) Blank Human: Metamorphosis is a performance piece by artist Lisa Anita Wegner (haus of dada) and musician Ray Cammaert (Pink Moth). It began as an extension of Wegner’s Trauma Therapy and represents a safe place in the search for one’s self after complete annihilation. It is both a confirmation of vitality and a call to action. The piece explores male and female layers of the neutral self and uses vibration of sound to assist in the expression of terror, hysteria, madness, resilience and joy on the journey to re-birth.
After this metamorphosis I realized that I will always continue to embody Thin(k) Blank Human but as for my personal artistic through line I have come through the structure of relying on artifice to find authenticity. My current work is based in realigning my chronically tight psoas muscles which have caused a leg length discrepancy and making my physical body unstable and chronically crooked. After going to a stretch class of Mary-Margaret Scrimger’s at Pursuit I understood the power of stretching my body and how I felt different immediately. Now every day I stretch for at least 10 minutes, some studio days I stretch up to three hours. In this stretching and realignment I am finding myself and who I really am as an artist without all the performance bombast that I so enjoy.
I am working on a nude performance / film series called Metamorphosis Human Realignment. This physical stretching practise has changed my life and now through that doorway I am creating a performance to tell the truth with my body. I am very excited about this work. It’s also the first time I am not sharing as I go.
LAW
Tags: Canadian Art, canadian artist, dada, lisa anita were, performance art, therapeutic art, therapy art, Toronto Canada, video art
September 1, 2016 Canadian Performer Refuses To Show Face
In Toronto Canada, an arrogant performance artist declares themself amazing while refusing to show any facial expression.
When we reached out to the haus of dada for comment we received the following message in German via telegraph from curator Fritz Snitz. “The Ubermarionette only does private performances for close friends, artists and cherished audience members and is not interested in speaking with you peoples.” -Ritzy Fritzy
Artist Would Rather Give Ownership of Her Work to Those Who Inspire, Than Those Who Can Pay.
Performance Artist’s Perceived Gender Affects Audience Reaction
Tags: art installation, art therapy, Canadian Art, dada, haus of dada, performance art, performance artist, Toronto, trauma therapy
September 29, 2015 BEING: inside the glacier. Performing GLACIOLOGY with Anandam Dance Theatre
Using the movement of glaciers across landscapes as an entry point, this piece explores states of density, collaboration, collapse, overpopulation, relocation, disruption, environmental tipping points, disappeared people, mass graves, icebergs, and melting ice caps. Glaciology combines site specific performance with human sculpture and choreographic installation to create a surreal, constantly shifting image of bodies as landscape and simultaneously as capsules of history and memory; both human and geological.
http://www.scotiabanknuitblanche.ca/project.html?project_id=1568
Choreography: Brandy Leary
Sonic Designer/Composition: James Bunton
Tags: anandam dance theatre, art installation, brandy leary, Canadian Art, canadian artist, christine shaw, glaciology, haus of dada, human glacier, human sculpture, jen goodwin, lisa anita wegner, performance art, public art event, Scotiabank Nuit Blanche
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August 31, 2015 Reel Fashion – Paula John’s CELLULOID DRESS
“One hundred new revolutionary materials riot in the piazza, demanding to be admitted into the making of womanly clothes.” -Volt, Futurist Manifesto Of Women’s Fashion (1920)
Gallery 1313 is excited to have Paula John’s Celluloid Dress on display in the Windowbox for September 2015.
Celluloid Dress plays with the relationship between two technologies that creator Paula John uses in her art practice – sewing and 16mm celluloid filmmaking. Inspired in part by Volt’s “Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion,” this wearable dress is made from over 250 feet of exposed 16mm film from one of John’s own films and nylon mesh. LEDs stitched into the skirt illuminate individual frames and project the images onto nearby surfaces for a truly stunning effect.
This amazing piece will be on exhibit in the Windowbox for September, during the period when the city’s attention turns to film with the Toronto International Film Festival. Celluloid Dress will provide viewers with an entirely different twist on what film can be, and stimulate their imaginations to consider other uses and convergences for familiar technologies.
Paula John is a multi-disciplinary artist and scholar based in Toronto. She has been exhibiting her work (including photography, film, textiles, installation, and performance) since 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, and a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Culture from York University. Some of the themes explored in her work include, gender, sexuality, feminism, and performance. Paula is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.
Paula will be giving an Artist’s Talk at the reception on Sunday, September 13th from 3-5 p.m. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet a unique artist and view one of the results of her creative vision.
-Lisa Anita Wegner, Windowbox co-curator for Gallery 1313
Artist Statement
Celluloid Dress is a performance-based installation that combines the mediums of sewing and 16mm filmmaking to explore the numerous similarities between the two technologies. I was inspired by the early twentieth century Avant-garde art movement Futurism, and in particular the 1920 Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion by Vincenzo Fani (Volt). In it he declares,
Women’s fashion has always been more or less Futurist. Fashion: the female equivalent of Futurism. Speed, novelty, courage of creation… Fashion is an art, like architecture and music…Women’s fashion can never be extravagant enough… The reign of silk in the history of female fashion must come to an end, just as the reign of marble is now finished in architectural constructions. One hundred new revolutionary materials riot in the piazza, demanding to be admitted into the making of womanly clothes. We fling open wide the doors of the fashion ateliers to paper, cardboard, glass, tinfoil, aluminum, ceramic, rubber, fish skin, burlap, oakum, hemp, gas, growing plants, and living animals.[1]
The Futurists valued speed, dynamism and new technologies, and were interested in transforming all sensory aspects of life. This extended to art, literature, music, food, architecture, and even fashion. In the spirit of the Futurists I developed a project in which I could combine two technologies that I use in my art practice: sewing and filmmaking. I merged the two technologies by first sewing a dress out of film. The handmade dress was sewn entirely out of 16mm celluloid film and nylon mesh, using approximately 250 feet of one of my films. I stitched LEDs into the skirt, which illuminate individual frames and project the images onto nearby surfaces. I then physically linked the two technologies in a performance, using a film loop to connect the sewing machine and the projector.
There are a number of similarities between sewing and 16mm film making, the most explicit being that Singer, the leading manufacturer of sewing machines, also made 16mm projectors. There are also parallels between the machines themselves. Both a sewing machine and a projector are threaded; both machines have a spool and a take up; both machines make similar sounds; tension is important; and the presser foot and the film gate serve essentially the same purpose on their respective machines. Even the movements of the machines reflect each other with the spinning of the reels and of the balance wheel. The process of editing a film is also similar to sewing, where shots are stitched together. The type of 16mm filmmaking that I personally engage in shares strong similarities with the act of sewing. Both processes take place within my home at the kitchen table. Both sewing and analog filmmaking are highly tactile and laborious practices where the physicality of the medium is emphasized.
For the performance aspect of the piece I project a copy of that same film through a 16mm projector on a continuous loop. The film loops through the projector and physically moves throughout the space through the use of pulleys attached to the ceiling. Approximately fifteen feet in front of the projector sits a sewing machine, which has been modified to add a film gate, allowing the film to pass through it on its loop. During the performance, I sit at the machine while wearing the film dress and sew the film as the projector drives it forward. The film is projected on both the sewing machine and my body, and as I sew, holes are punctured in the celluloid abstracting the image. Eventually through this process as more and more holes are punctured in the film the filmstrip is completely destroyed and breaks apart.
Bio
Paula John is a multi-disciplinary artist and scholar based in Toronto. She has been exhibiting her work (including photography, film, textiles, installation, and performance) since 2003. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Media from Ryerson University, and a Master of Arts degree in Communication and Culture from York University. Some of the themes explored in her work include, gender, sexuality, feminism, and performance. Paula is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University.
[1] Volt, . “Futurist Manifesto of Women’s Fashion.” Trans. Array Futurism: An Anthology. . 1st ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. 253-54. Print.
Tags: art, art exhibition, art gallery, Canadian Art, celluloid, dress, exhibition, fashion, feminist, gallery 1313, lisa anita wegner, paula john, performance, performance art, tiff, Toronto, women filmmakers, Women’s Fashion, York University
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February 23, 2015 Canadian Artist Misses her Own Art Opening, Forced into (mī′grān′) Performance.
February 23 2015 Fritz Snitz for the haus of dada
Canadian Filmmaker Performance Artist, Lisa Anita Wegner was curiously missing from the opening party of Phil Anderson’s Sex Show V at Gallery 1313 on Queen Street West.
Still from Eva Gets a Better Job (2008)This group art show includes Eva Gets a Better Job (2008) a short film of Wegner’s. The opening on January 19th was a booming success and it was a shame the artist wasn’t there.
Curator Fritz Snitz announced was forced to perform (mī′grān′) at haus of dada in Toronto and was unable to make the Gallery1313 event. 
The Following day Ms. Wegner performed as The Ubermarionette “Tech Scout for The Fall and Rise if The Queen of Jupiter” at Walker Court at The Art Gallery of Ontario. Afterward she teleported to The Artist Project. Photos by Angela Chao.
The Artist Project with Adrienne Dagg
Coming soon: Thin(k) Blank Human BadAss.
Tags: adrienne Dagg, angela chao, art gallery, art openings, Fritz Snitz, gallery 1313, lisa anita wegner, migraine, performance art, performance artist, phil anderson, queen street west, sex show, the artist project, thin(k) blank human, Toronto
October 31, 2014 Performance Artist’s Perceived Gender Affects Audience Reaction
Since Nuit Blanche on October 4th 2014, artist Lisa Anita Wegner has been performing as Thin Blank Human with her face and body completely covered in a white spandex suit. She talks about the surprising experiences of her audience interactions these last weeks as she talks to Fritz Snitz.
In the weeks leading up to Lisa’s third and last Nuit Blanche installation TRIANGLE: Ascension into Another Golden Age, Lisa discovered bending light with mirror film, a practise she calls Light Painting. Her mind was blown open so wide from this discovery she never recovered. In the days leading up to the event Lisa was not able to decide on an outfit for Mama Dada/ Space Guide. Several days before Nuit Blanche it all came together when Lisa found a white spandex morph suit and she never looked back.The Thin Blank Human came to life.
Q: On the eve of your Performance/ Projection/ Sculpture installation TRIANGLE: Ascension into Another Golden Age you were interviewed by local news and walked once to The Black Cat as The Think Blank Human, with only a headset and GoPro camera her your head. Tell us about that.
A: My outfit really wasn’t coming together, and when I saw the morph suit I felt like I’d found it and I decided to put my original Space Guide outfit on a mannequin and be The Space Guide’s Soul. This also felt right for the light painting that I was excited to do. I decided I was the spirit of Mama Dada who travels through space and time. In the suit I felt comfortable and free, the only thing is I really can’t see. I had an interview with local news and I wore just the suit, the headphones and a GO Pro on my head.
I noticed during that quick interview that people stepped and leaned away from me when I approached and talked to them. And stared ay me with with open mouths. Someone on Dundas Street said “that’s a dude” as I passed. I walked once to The Black Cat from Haus of Dada and got similar reactions. The wind was cold on my body and I had an impulse to put a dress over the white morph suit for my own warmth and comfort. Without testing it in advance I put a Mama Dada dress over my suit and went back out.
I spent the rest of the night in a performing in a white morph suit and a dress and more obviously a woman I got friendly reactions and TRIANGLE: Ascension into Another Golden Age was a a wild success. That night Thin Blank Human was born.
Q: And then you performed a Strip Tease called Nothing To See Here.
A: Yes later in October I performed Nothing To See Here at The Canadian Alternative Arts Collective (of which I am proud to be a new member) and here is where the gender issue started to become interesting. That night I didn’t speak. I gestured to the writing on the back of my Flight Suit and then would do various strip tease dances out of the suit.
At first an older man said ‘You are spectacular, can I ask if you are a man or a woman?” I answered “I am a woman” and he said “really?” and stared at me longer. I said “yes my name is Lisa” and he seemed not to believe me. During this packed event I stripped out of the flight suit many times. A second man came over and said to me “If you don’t stop that, I’m going to punch you in the face.” I was surprised and responded playfully but didn’t stop. Third guy said “I don’t want to see a man strip. Stop it it’s fucking disturbing.” I said out loud “I am a woman.” I overheard another man say “that is not a woman, no woman would dance like that.” I also heard “no woman would wear that.”
Interesting. First of all who cares? These guys care. I was immediately reminded of friend and artist Steven Joseph, who was my MUSE for TRIANGLE, he is a male who is given a hard time on a regular basis by males who get angry with him for looking like a beautiful woman. 
These small examples led me to believe that I want to further experiment with gender and the morph suit. So my female body shape and female voice do not trump the idea that I’m a man. – October 27 2014.
Fritz Snitz is arranging for Lisa to perform NOTHING TO SEE HERE in New York City in 2015 following a series of performances in downtown Toronto. Tonight for Halloween Haus of Dada presents a Screening/ Performance/ Installation FREE SURGERY on All Hallows Eve where Lisa will be performing as The Faceless Dr. Wegner.
More about Thin Blank Human Artist Would Rather Give Ownership of Her Work to Those Who Inspire, Than Those Who Can Pay.
More: Performance Artist Charging Art Collectors To Think About Her
Tags: canadian, dress, gender, haus of dada, lisa anita wegner, nothing to see here, nuit blanche, performance art, strip tease, thin blank human
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October 13, 2014 Artist Would Rather Give Ownership of Her Work to Those Who Inspire, Than Those Who Can Pay.
Artist Lisa Anita Wegner has had a wave of unexpected financial success when Haus of Dada started offering LAW Thought Certificates for sale. Originally priced at a mere $200 to think about Lisa, when they were announced as available the price shot up to sell at over a thousand times their original value.
An anonymous German collector was thrilled that he holds the first gallery sanctified thought, purchased at $300,000 CDN. He owns the thought of Lisa Anita Wegner in her signature white suit for 2014. “Many others are allowed to think it, but I own it- I paid for it” the collector boasts.“We don’t want Lisa saturating people’s minds, we want them wanting more. So we will stop the sales next week and then “Memories of LAW” ownership certificates can only be viewed be during upcoming March 9th performance at the Museum of Modern Art or next season as a guest performance at the Art Gallery of Ontatrio” says her manager who goes by his street name Wheels.
Unexpectedly the first week of October, Haus of Dada stopped the sale of these thought certificates and Lisa insisted the 3.3 Million CDN be divided amongst local charities.
“All this wealth flashed around felt creepy,” admitted Lisa, who will now be giving these valuable Thought Certificates to people who have directly inspired her. “If these folks want to cash them in, that is up to them. It is a gift.”
Bruce Willis poses with a rare shot of a LAW Thought Certificate. “I’ll never let this piece go.” Declares Willis
So artists, art patrons, curators and media are all waiting to see who is chosen to receive these valuable pieces of paper. “Finances will have nothing to do with it. They go to those who have given me something much more valuable than money. Inspiration and human connection.” says Lisa with a big smile.
October 13, 2014 Fritz Snitz for Haus of Dada
Tags: art, Art Collectors, Fritz Snitz, haus of dada, LAW, lisa anita wegner, performance art
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July 20, 2014 Whole Milk and Cocaine: Making Spectacle of Stardust at The Black Cat
Wanda and I doing makeup test.
Sneak peek at Vanessa Lee Wishart’s glorious rainbow gown for closing party
Tags: androgyny, art, art gallery, art therapy, art video, art videos, david bowie, gender, hair and makeup, haus of dada, intern, life on jupiter, life on mars?, lisa anita wegner, maha rich, medical art, performance art, performance art piece, the black cat, transformation, wanda macrae, ziggy stardust
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- Posted under art installation ideas, dada lab experiments, film and art, Stardust
May 15, 2014 Life on Jupiter? Me & Ziggy
I tell people all the time that I meditate but so far I’ve laid pretty low about my meditation buddy Ziggy Stardust. It sheds light on my fascination, for those interested in such shedding.
Tags: 1973, art, artist, david bowie, fascination, haus of dada, inspiration, joy, life on jupiter, life on mars?, lisa anita wegner, meditation, performance art, performance artist, spiders from mars, the black cat, the life and death of piggy stardust, Toronto, wanda macrae, ziggy stardust
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Lisa Anita Wegner 
