Cadavre Exquis - Part Three: “Recompose”

The chain reaction concludes…

Theatre 1308 presents Cadavre Exquis: Part Three – Recompose, the final chapter in this cross-disciplinary series curated by composer and violinist Jeremy Gignoux.

The series began with a single, anonymous piece of music - now revealed to have been created by Rebecca Bruton. From there, each step responded only to the one before it: music inspired visual art, and that art inspired new music.

In this final event, the journey comes full circle, with new visual works inspired by Part II, followed by new music from Rebecca Bruton’s Swanherds project, performed alongside the original seed music!

What Happens in Part Three – Recompose

6:30pm – Exhibition: Visual artists Jonathan Creese, Verna Vogel, and Monica Ila present new works created in response to the improvised music from Part II. Their practices - spanning printmaking, painting, sculpture, and interdisciplinary forms—complete the final transformation from sound back into image.

7:30pm – Performance: Rebecca Bruton presents Swanherds, an evocative musical project blending experimental composition with elements of country, folk, and improvisation. Drawing on voice, guitar, and a richly textured ensemble sound, Bruton performs both the original piece that began the series and a newly recomposed work that brings it to a close - framing the entire arc from first note to final transformation.

As the final link in the chain, Recompose reveals how each artist’s response has shaped the next - connecting music and visual art in an evolving creative dialogue from beginning to end.

Featured Visual Artists

Jonathan Creese is a Trinidadian visual artist, printmaker, and designer, currently based in Calgary AB. He graduated in 2025 with distinction from Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary AB with a Bachelor of Fine Art in Fibre and a minor in Print Media. He has exhibited works in solo exhibitions at the Prairie Crocus Gallery, Calgary AB and the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, Federation Park TTO. In 2025 he was the recipient of the AUArts Board of Governors Graduating Student Award and the Haystack Mountain School of Craft Studio Assistant Fellowship. He is scheduled to be an emerging artist in residence at The Society of Northern Alberta Printmakers, Edmonton AB in the summer of 2026.

https://www.thecreolefactory.org/

Verna Vogel is a first-generation Canadian visual artist who has been practising for several decades.  Her artworks have been shown in public and private art galleries across Canada, and her paintings have been acquired by collectors around the world. She graduated with honours from the Studio Arts Foundation Program at Capilano College in Vancouver, BC. where she studied painting, drawing, sculpture, and print making. She then received an international study grant to attend the Malaysian Institute of Art (MIA) in Kuala Lumpur for a full calendar year.  She graduated from MIA's third year Fine Arts Program with a focus on Chinese ink painting. Verna was born in Canada's Great Lakes region, and currently lives and works in Mohkinstsis/Calgary.  Creating and showing her work, teaching, and arts advocacy are ways in which she hopes to contribute to a balanced world.

https://bluerockgallery.ca/collections/verna-vogel

Monica Ila (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and prairie mermaid from Calgary, Alberta. Her work includes sculpture, murals, painting, and puppetry. Playfulness is at the heart of everything she makes. Monica is pursuing a BFA in Sculpture at the Alberta University of the Arts. She has had the privilege of exhibiting her artwork in galleries and public institutions across Canada. Monica believes that art is instrumental in bringing communities closer together and rediscovering the whimsy within our daily lives.

https://www.monicaila.com/

Featured Musicians

Swanherds is the most recent transfiguration of Western Canadian composer, vocalist, and songwriter Rebecca Bruton. 

Known for her work as an experimental and film composer (and at home, as the Artistic Director of the acclaimed experimental music presenting series New Works Calgary), in Swanherds bruton incorporates melodramatic elements of country & western songwriting, set amidst sonorous, avant-fantasias of whistling, weeping, yodeling, and saw.

Following two independent albums as Lilman and Rebecca Flood, as well as one critically acclaimed album of experimental classical music under her own name, Swanherds sits atop a golden record egg waiting to hatch some time in 2026.

https://rebeccabruton.com/