Inside the Day was Night
Salt Spring Island | Coast Salish Territory (Tsawout, Tsartlip, Pauquachin, Tseycum)
August 18th - August 21st, 2017
A new collaborative project between Liljana Mead Martin and Caitlin Chaisson.
Inside the Day was Night is a short-term project developed by artists Liljana Mead Martin and Caitlin Chaisson on the occasion of the 2017 solar eclipse. Using the eclipse as an opportunity to consider the tenacious choreography between the sun and the moon, the passing of two bodies, and the pull of cosmic forces on terrestrial life, the artists took part in a four-day series of improvisational actions on Salt Spring Island.
The transgression of the moon “You, come here and take my place”
The first bite taken by the moon, as it creeps over the luminous body of the sun, is a reminder that positions in the universe are protean. They either shift with calamity, or pass by unnoticed. Eclipses tender an offer to reconsider what we believe to be the proper causal relationships between objects and subjects, agencies or passivities. These relationships are not static.
Movement and alignment, depth and distance, foreground many of our performances. This thing is near, that thing is far. This overlaps, that sits behind. One thing occurs in front of the other. Landscapes intersect with bodies. Horizons intersect with objects. An earlier presence is interrupted by one that occurs later. The previous action is visible through the present one. Myself and herself crossover.
Shadows of a receding tide “I’ll come towards you”
The relationship between shadow and light, or high tide and low tide, render a celestial experience of the sun and the moon into forms that can be apprehended quite simply through our senses. We can witness the effects of the moon, in situ, when the water creeps towards us and laps over the once-dry shoals. We can feel the day shift into night as the sun begins to set, and shadows grow longer in the coolness of the evening. Water and light actively shape our actions throughout Inside the Day was Night. From the harbour to the hillside, movements unfold through a sensitive place-based dialogue.
Weather made vain, while your back’s turned towards it “Perhaps it’s time we go”
Orbits of attraction wax and wane. The eclipse is a phenomena that must be experienced with your back turned towards it. It is sensed through refraction, reflection, through oblique and indirect means. Perhaps, even more sinisterly, through manipulations. Move into the shadows. Can’t you see?
Download the exhibition poster here.