Port Hope Candlelight Festival 2021
Andrew Maize’s playful and process-oriented approach uses language, technology, and movement as catalyst for larger conversations – the expression a result of connection to space, community and place – taking seriously both the conceptual framework and materials as a starting point, to engage the audience in political, historical and geographical contexts.
As an arts educator and organizer, Andrew has been involved in collaborative projects that engage communities with art in public spaces. He has also been making, flying and sharing his love of kites with people of all ages for over 10 years. This winter, we look forward to having him share his project RAISING BIG QUESTIONS with the public in Port Hope. Stay tuned for more info!
Kelly Kirkham is a visual artist who lives and works in the town of Port Hope, Ontario. She lived in Toronto for many years, where she spent her time in both the visual arts community and the puppet community.
Since 2013, when Kelly and her family moved to Port Hope, her visual arts practice has contained and combined both drawing and puppetry, each discipline blending with and influencing the other in new and exciting ways.
Protection, play, and watchfulness are themes she likes to explore, along with a love of working with line and colour.
Port Hope Candlelight Festival 2021
The Candlelight Festival is an annual holiday experience that invites you to come and explore the seasonal transformation of downtown Port Hope.
The festival is led by the Candlelight Festival Committee, a partnership between The Municipality of Port Hope, Critical Mass, and Downtown Port Hope (the HBIA), working together to kick off the holiday season in the most magical way.
Come celebrate the season with us from November 26, 2021 until January 2, 2022. There will be light displays, vender markets, local merchants, music, wagon rides and so much more.
We’re kicking off the festival in Lent Lane on Friday, November 26th from 5pm to 8pm!
We’re sure you’ll love the vintage holiday tunes, live art spectacles, and plenty of homespun artisan crafts for sale at the outdoor Night Market! This is an accessible and family friendly event, but also makes for a wonderful date-night!
Visit porthope.ca/candlelight-festival for a full list of festive experiences.
Please note, due to COVID-19 the Port Hope Candlelight Festival has been modified to include both virtual and self-guided exploration activities this year. As such, the Candlelight Walk and park lighting ceremony have been cancelled.
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A Nocturnal ART Spectacle!
Friday, November 26th
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Critical Mass will host a nocturnal spectacle outside the Little Station in Lent Lane on an 8′ by 8′ screen, featuring a projected and live-typed textravaganza – an eye for an ear – led by artist Andrew Maize, and joined by local poets Wally Keeler, and Lyss Warmland, and award-winning journalist (and king of the tweet!) Chris Jones, whose new book The Eye Test can be pre-ordered here.
The Little Station will also be host to artist and puppet-maker ‘at work’ – Kelly Kirkham. Kelly will be working on creating a whole bunch of puppets (big and small) for her upcoming exhibition Sightseer at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, January 8th to February 26th, 2022. Drop in to get a behind the scenes glimpse at this whimsical winter artist workshop.
An Eye for An Ear – by Andrew Maize
An eye for an ear, is a simple installation consisting of a computer, a word processing program, a projector and an 8 foot by 8 foot screen. Word-workers (poets, writers, artists, etc) will play and experiment with live-typing to a transitory audience in public space.
Human cultures shape and are shaped by technologies. Over the past few thousand years, the inventions of writing, phonetic alphabets, and the printing press have drastically shifted the way many human societies communicate, moving from primarily oral cultures (ear/sound) to written cultures (eye/visual). An eye for an ear.
These shifts continue to have profound consequences on human beings. Much of the text and dialogue we encounter today is in digital spaces; emails, text messages, social media. These platforms are powerful tools for sharing ideas and words faster, farther and to broader audiences than ever before. At the same time, algorithms, context collapse, pervasive disinformation, and the disembodiment of “voice” has created an environment of often divisive and discordant “public” discourse (it should be noted that this social media is private corporate digital space.) There is no longer a singular, linear dominant narrative, but a polyphony (or more like cacophony) of diverse, divergent and fragmented points of view. The isolation, uncertainty and urgency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has made these growing rifts more palpable – such as the divisive discourse around the collective social safety measures such as masking, social-distancing and vaccinations. And with increasingly urgent calls for individual, collective and political action in the face of increasing social inequities, white supremacy, racial injustices, ongoing colonial violence (all underscored by the rapidly closing window to mitigate the slow violence of climate catastrophe) – we might wonder about the role of art and language in turbulent times like these? Where do we go from here?
This project questions the ways in which our experience of text changes when we encounter it collectively, in public space, and in the act of it being written. How do we respond and bear witness? How does meaning change in context and with audience? How does language bring us together across time and space?
Sightseer – by Kelly Kirkham
Visual artist Kelly Kirkham is prepping for an upcoming exhibition that will involve the installation of a whole lot of puppets, big and small.
Why puppets? Kirkham is interested in the many ways something can be a puppet. Puppets can get away with saying things and behaving in ways that we can’t or won’t. She likes their connection to story, show and performance. They can be different and strange looking while at the same time mirroring our own human emotions, mannerisms, and behaviour.
This installation will be realized in a variety of materials and techniques, including painted-on cloth and papier mache, armatures, mold making and plaster, and photography. Kelly loves to work with a lot of colour, pattern and contrast, especially between pale and saturated, smooth and rough.
You will be able to see exhibition at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, from January 8th to February 26th, 2022. Opening reception will be held on Saturday January 8th.