wade 2006, july 7th, 8th and 9th





1. ATANAS BOZDAROV + TOMASZ SMEREKA
Bozdarov and Smereka fill a wading pool with clear plastic bags of water. This setting invites playful exploration of the unique visual and tactile qualities of the packaged pool water.

2. MICHAEL CAINES + LEAH DECTER
“Everyone in the Pool” works with community members to create the artwork. Participating pool waders stomp and stir wool within the pool transforming it into felt. After the felt has dried, participants take a section as a souvenir.


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3. PETER CHIN
“Verbal Source” is a solo work combining dance, stand-up comedy, and vocalization in a collage of world cultures. The narrative is based on the artist’s migration from Jamaica to Toronto, using water as a metaphor for creativity and an agent for looking into the past and future.

4. SANDRA GREGSON
“True Reflection” lines the floor of the pool with artificial grass to create an alluring oasis. This whimsical proposition invites questions about our urban
replications of the natural world.

5. JOHN GREYSON + MARGARET MOORES
“Roy and Silo’s Wedding”. Roy and Silo are the gay penguins at the Central Park Zoo. Since they are unable to marry there, we’ll have the wedding here! An evening of penguin video and performance by a flock of decoy bridesmaids. Of course, there will be cake.

6. MARCIA HUYER
Huyer’s large inflatable sculpture is made from an assemblage of existing water toys. The toys morph together to create a humourous and slightly ridiculous creature. It resides only in the shallows of wading pools as it fears the depths of Lake Ontario.

7. YAM LAU
Lau is using his mobile kiosk to set up a temporary display and service centre for wade 2006. The artist and the kiosk move between pools during the weekend disseminating information about the project and collecting feedback to be posted on the website.

8. SHANNON MCMULLEN + FABIAN WINKLER
“Waves” focuses on the connection between water waves and sound waves.
Sound compositions are generated by the waves created in the pool by waders. Accelerometers in buoys measure the magnitude of waves. This data is converted into sound waves that are amplified by speakers in the buoys.

9. HAZEL MEYER
“Deer Heads” is a participatory project where a herd of people wearing papier maché deer heads travel between wading pools in the city. The pools are symbolically transformed into watering holes: places of wildlife, community and congregation. The herd will act like a pied piper, walking through the city, drawing people from the main streets to other wading pool events.

10. THEODOR PELMUS, EUGENIO SALAS + MICHELE STANLEY
In “Sea City” the artists create hundreds of paper boats with the community. These boats transform the surface of the pool into a floating projection screen. Later the same day, images of sea and sky will be projected on to this surface creating a poetic moving image.



11. TONY STALLARD
“Into the Abyss” is a conceptual neon sculpture fabricated in mirror-image. Its night time reflection on the surface of the pool will enable us to read the text. A projection of a figure accompanies the reflection.

12. CHRYSANNE STATHACOS
"Purifying Roses" fills a pool with red rose petals that float on the surface of the water, creating a beautiful sea of colour for participants' meditation.


13. S.U.R.G.E.: INGRID BACHMANN, LORAINNE OADES + ANA REWAKOWICZ       
“Sonar” is a performance using sound, light and water. It invites viewers into a cloud of mist where they activate sensors to create a theatrical soundscape based on pre-recorded sounds from the neighbourhood. Thanks to Michael Carroll, Atelier Build, Montreal.


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14. NICK TOBIER
Tobier is inspired by the swimming pool musicals of Busby Berkeley. A small corps of uniformed workers turn their tools and tasks from maintenance to spectacle, creating human-generated fountains. Joined regularly by a cast of seeming-onlookers, this crew turns the pool into an aquatic stage.



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