Landscape Puppets ~ WINTER 2017
“My residency was all about...getting my hands dirty with papier-mâché cornstarch glue! I took place outdoors and involved the community as much as possible. I scheduled group walks (with an open invitation) and explore the surrounding landscapes. We looked for unique rocks shapes and papier-mâchéd these forms for puppet, costume and sculpture making back at the studio. I presented workshops at local schools which helped me explore these ideas, and also hosted artist talks.”
Brian Riley
Brian Riley is a professional Wolfville based artist. His is an award-winning sound designer and composer for theatre and dance. His practice involves community-based arts and puppetry, often in large scale.
He grew up in rural Nova Scotia where he studied and toured with music ensembles including the Antigonish Highland Society Pipeband, Dr.J.H. Gillis Percussion Ensemble, and his funk group Batuka. He studied Recording Arts at Nova Scotia Community College in 2003, and apprenticed with producer Laurence Currie at Idea of East Studios. From 2004 to 2008 he worked at Neptune Theatre managing the sound department, mixing musicals, and sound designing mainstage shows. He studied community arts facilitation with Jumblies Theatre and The 4C’s Foundation and has trained at Halifax Circus in acrobatics, club juggling and fire-spinning. He has trained in collaborative leadership through ‘Art of Hosting’ trainings in Karlskrona, Sweden, Moncton N.B. and Halifax N.S.
He toured the western United States with musician Brett Nelson in 2008 and travelled with theatrical productions to Toronto’s Rhubarb Festival (2009) and The Magnetic North Theatre Festival (2011 Ottawa / 2016 Whitehorse) In the past few years he has also toured to Bristol England, Cleveland USA, Preston England, and Vancouver with Zuppa on ‘Pop Up Love Party’ and ‘How Small, How Far Away’.
Brian has composed and performed for Mocean Dance on ‘Wild Within’ (2019) ‘Standing Alone Facing You’ (2016) and Mocean’s 15th Anniversary Celebration titled ‘15’. He also composed for Lisa Phinney on her piece, ‘Entangled’ which was presented by Live Art Dance in 2017. He did sound designs for choreographers Jacinte Armstrong ( ‘The Ark’ – 2013) and Rhonda Baker (The Movement Project – 2014).
Selected theatre credits include Merritt award-winning sound design for Zuppa Theatre’s Pop Up Love Party (2015), How Small How Far Away (2013/2016), Composing for Secret Theatre’s Landline (2013), Folklore mobile (2012), We Are Here (2011), and The Common (2010). Collaborating with DaPoPo Theatre Brian worked to create The Drinking Game (2012). He has performed solo works at the Suitcase Festival, Lilah Kempt Reading Series, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He has co-artistic directed Circus of the Normal (2013), The Potato Circus (2013), Circus of The Revolution (2014) The bp Nichol and Playmaker Olympic Circus in PEI (Art in The Open) and Circus of the Phenomenon(2016). These circuses were community-driven performances created by professional multidisciplinary artists and community members.
He has worked with Bread & Puppet Theatre (Vermont USA) in 2012. Starting as an apprentice, he was asked to continue as part of the company for the remainder of the season. Brian returned to Vermont in 2013 to continue work under master puppeteer and artistic director Peter Schumann, performing in weekly shows and parades.
He has done residencies in rural communities and urban institutions and has created youth programs including Spiral Studio Lab (2012-16), Project Sing! (2011), Telling Truths (2012), and Rock Cafe (2010).
Q & A with Brian Riley
Q: When we first met, you described yourself as "an artist" as opposed to a visual artist or fine artist. Why?
I think I had a few things in mind when I mentioned that. I work a lot in time-based performance, usually building moments. I also do build objects, but usually they are objects to support moments...building puppets, props, placemaking installations that sort of thing, but I'm weary to call myself a fine artist or visual artist because of the association with static objects in galleries. I also find myself quite unfamiliar (and uninterested?) with the a commercial art world that is maybe associated with those terms.
I see being an 'artist' as an approach to life, your relationship to your surroundings and how you reflect that back to society with intention. I think maybe incorrectly I see most people I know as artists. More of an engagement with what you are doing then an understanding of aesthetic context.
I feel I am sometimes outside the contemporary discourse around fine arts/visual arts, and don't know the specific systems and language to aggrandize my work to people in that world. I’m getting to know it more and more, but mostly I feel fine knowing the products I make are potentially meaningless in an institutional setting. I make tons of simple and unsophisticated community focused work and a lot of people get engaged and connect to it...it may not be the kind of thing for the galleries really but my hope is that it is alive for people and stirs their imaginations.
Of course, I'm going to contradict myself here, but as my residency went on and the weather kept me inside more than I thought, i decided to challenge some of my patterns...play with the ‘white wall’ aesthetic that Pavia offered...see what I could learn in this new context.
Q: What was your experience like during the residency with PAVIA?
It was a super awesome. I feel like I learned a lot about how I work through this residency, how I categorize my thoughts and what sort of work flows keep me inspired. I wanted to learn about the area, local hiking trails, any ‘cool spots’ etc to better understand the landscape. I feel like I don’t spend time thinking about landscape in today’s technology driven work so I bundled up and spent a bunch of time getting to know the land.
I connected with different community members and groups in the cafe space of Pavia, and they would draw maps or come with me to these spots, and observe what was unique or collect materials to be used for the work. I used brown 'underlay' paper as my main medium and focused on papier mache forms of rocks and sticks. I found a really great stash of roots that had been dug up on a hiking trails, as well as rocks collected from local beaches.
Another big part of this project I should mention was working at the local junior high. What a blast. These kiddos had A LOT of energy and it was great to see them getting their hands dirty with papier mache. We also spent a bit of time outside checking out rocks, and at lunch some of the kids would come from the Junior high and hang out in my studio.
Q: At the beginning of your residency you had no intentions of a final exhibition. In fact, you were un sure if there would be a final anything and that may just be a process. How did things evolve into a full fledged exhibition?
