Bright Side Festival: Tadpole - WAYFINDING

 

Gestures point towards unintelligible meanings. How do we discern paths through our lives? Where does this information come from, and how would you know what to keep and what to leave behind?

how do we navigate a space? how do we build environments? how do we discern where to go next? what do we do when we get there?  

Tadpole presents WAYFINDING, featuring a roving visual art exhibition by bill’s benevolent association over two floors of Theater 1308.

Found material sculptures, recycled collages and signs from the universe beckon us to question how our own interiority becomes a space to navigate and an environment to build. Where do we go next? What do we do when we get there?  

Musical performances by Ryan Bourne and the Plant City Band, Osmanthus, and wanderingaria.

Complete festival line-up: https://theatre1308.com/all-events

About the Artists

bill's benevolent association

Wood piled up. A ramshackle slap-happy sign outside a mechanics shop on a quiet road. A snapped ratchet strap laying in the dirt, a lost load. Dusty coveralls in dry sunlight, dirty hands in the green grass. A sign that gives no direction, a sign that gives all direction. Announcing nothing. Playing mix and match with visions of prairie contentment and blue collar work, bill's benevolent association (brothers Josh and Evan Brien) create artworks that gather the bits and pieces from open fields and overlooked alleys to sit in still moments. Ranging from screenprints and zines to sign painting to sculpture, the association's artworks playfully approach contentment, an outlook summed up in the phrase 'it's ok not to know'.

Ryan Bourne

For the better part of the last decade, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Bourne has been one of western Canada’s most in-demand players and collaborators, logging major hours onstage and in the studio with the likes of Chad Van Gaalen, Ghostkeeper, and Jon McKiel. Now, nearly a decade since his last critically-acclaimed solo album, Bourne is back with Plant City, his latest collection of lush, psych-laden songcraft. With Plant City - as with the dynamic live show featuring "The Plant City Band" - Bourne cements his status as one of the most adventurous sonic architects and affecting songwriters out there. 

Osmanthus

Starting as a one-off pairing for a small gallery show in early 2019, the Calgary based duo of Laura Reid (violin) and Krzysztof Sujata (synthesizer and keys) quickly grew in activity. From starting recording in the summer and a mini-tour that fall, to an abrupt hiatus in the fall of 2020 amid life changes and a global pandemic, Osmanthus felt like the right project that began at the wrong time. A few years on however, with a couple of performances having taken place in the meantime, they are ready to start things up again. The duo combines Reid’s classical prowess and ear for melody and texture with Sujata’s electronic experience and penchant for paced improvisation and minimalism. Together they straddle the line between acoustic and electronic music, and accentuate how truly insignificant the distinction between the two worlds is.

wanderingaria

Aria Janzen has extensively performed her expansive, sound-bending instrumentals under the moniker wanderingaria. A synthesist, pianist, multi-instrumentalist, and soundwave weaver, Janzen constantly explores music—seeking fresh ideas, instruments, and songwriting methods. Her latest work sees her undergoing transformations, exploring her voice and lyrical ability as half of the duo Gay Power.