Annunciation (from Mary's Mystery)
Annunciation (from Mary's Mystery)
Rebecca McTaggert dressed as a thirteenth century Virgin Mary ponders her story as recorded in Luke 1: 26-38. At the appropriate time, Brian Vail steps from the bell choir representing the angel Gabriel. Using helicopter swings on a large bell Gabriel interrupts Tunison's arrangement of Eric Satie's Gymnopedia #3 for hand bells and soprano (Rosemary Odie) with 'Hail Marys'. With these angelic words, seven toy seals with toilet paper (streamer-like) tails rain down on Mary. This was a emblematic fertilization of a human.
Democracy Works (from Social Spaces)
The concept of democracy is always intriguing me, therefore some polling stations were created along with ballots:
These democratic questions were intended to provoke thought about the environment, censorship, capital punishment, and urban planning. I found it interesting that a minority of the 200-300 voters chose a provocative entertainer rather than a notorious murderer for execution. The only building that received no vote for destruction was Central Collegiate. Remarkably, Regina City Council granted a demolition permit to that site and Central Collegiate was destroyed in the summer of 1994.
When Tunison's wife left him he painted two large silver rings separating on the family lawn. Through the rings he painted a big black "X" symbolizing the negative. This earthwork grew out during the summer and was part of the personal wailing and gnashing of teeth that Wayne passed through. It's hard to say how impressed a neutral neighbour may have been.
On New Year's Eve 1996, Tunison performed as Father Time giving his own eulogy while coughing up blood and removing the diaper from Baby 1997 and spanking her bottom. When Father Time collapsed, Baby 1997, modestly covering her nakedness, greets everyone in a fake Marilyn Monroe voice "Happy New Year".
Kate Herseberger dressed as a very traditional and very pregnant Mary arranges in the pose of a barber chair. Tunison dressed in Buffalo skin coat sporting a Rabbi-like beard and long hair enters reciting the Ten Commandments. At the end of each commandment the bell choir strikes a thick chord moving towards a resolution by cadence at the end of the commandments. Tunison arranges himself comfortably on Mary and James Bates enters as Joseph who is not a carpenter in this case but a barber. As Tunison continues to recite the commandments Joseph gives him a shave and trim as Mary screams with labour pains due to ever accelerating contractions. As the big push causes Mary to scream Joseph helps Tunison out the Buffalo skin coat. Tunison now dressed in a white suit with a white tie decorated with prairie lilies wanders through the sanctuary by walking barefooted on top of the pews. The new commandment is to "Love Your Neighbour".
Orange Agent Test Area
When a lot became vacant in Tunison's neighbourhood, he couldn't resist using up all of his orange paint powders and small relics to decorate the lot. A sign was then placed in the middle of the property stating it was an Orange Agent Test Area. The project remained intact virtually untouched by vandalism for the entire summer. Nature was the one to obliterate this earth work.
Parthenogenesis (from Mary's Mystery)
Although Parthenogenesis is not really a performance piece, its juxtaposition next to the performance piece Annunciation has an element of the post-modern in it. Parthenogenesis is a speaking duet where Rosemary Oddie as a biologist describes in scientific terms the phenomena of parthenogenesis (pregnancy without fertilization by the male). Brian Vail still as the angel Gabriel explores the concept 'with God nothing is impossible' Luke1:37. The bell choir performed traditional English changes which had been modified by Tunison. This contrapuntal sound piece served as an alternative perspective of the pregnancy of the virgin Mary.
Soap Box (from Social Spaces)
This was an interactive performance for the opening of the Social Spaces show. Bus Chamberlin (son of Ernest Chamberlin the poet) mounts the traditional English soap box to engage a crowd on the definition of relationships such as marriage, common-law and parenting. He also challenges the crowd to account for the time of day that they have represented on their personal time pieces. Saskatchewan makes no effort for daylight savings time. Bus would alternate between the position of the sun and the state of relationships which such fluidity that the circular arguments seem to have been choreographed by a skating coach.
Westbridge Birthday Egg
This is a recursive cultural relic created to celebrate the first birthday of Westbridge Computer Corporation. The hollow chocolate egg symbolizes Westbridge since the Westbridge corporate logo was an orange-gold circle with three black arches radiating within it. The hollow egg is an negative image of this by being brown with three orange arches radiating within it. Westbridge was born by the privatization of the Crown Corporation SaskComp, thus the egg is emerging from the SaskComp coffee mug.
Updated By Wilson Harron, Andrew Shih And William Brown. July 13, 2000
Page last updated: April 11, 2002
