This Saturday evening, Halifax will become one giant art gallery and performance space.
The impetus behind this is a public art festival called Nocturne, which is now in its fourth year. Starting at the stroke of six and continuing until midnight, art lovers can stroll through five designated zones: Downtown Halifax, the Halifax Waterfront, Spring Garden Road, North End Halifax and Downtown Dartmouth. Events will happen everywhere from public to private spaces, from galleries to Citadel Hill. There’s even an app to help you organize your evening and map out your route.
If you’re looking for a decidedly queer bent during Nocturne, you may want to walk down to the corner of South Park and Sackville, at the CBC Radio Room. There, Krista Davis and Cari Tengedal, along with Kim Sheppard and Nolan Natasha, will present their very own peepshow.
Image courtesy of OUTeast
The show is sponsored by OUTeast, and true to its bombastic and cinematic lineage, the peep show will be a mix of performance and video.
“I’ve been carrying around the idea of the peepshow as a format to present video for a while,” says Davis. “Nowadays, a peepshow usually refers to the presentation of a sex show or pornographic images; however, different variations of the peepshow have been around for hundreds of years as a form of public storytelling.”
According to Davis, Nocturne is a perfect space for presenting art in a different and public format. “I love coming across art unexpectedly — in crevices or alleyways or holes in walls. It’s like getting let in on a little secret,” she points out. “And I’m nosy, so I find the idea of peepshows quite intriguing.”
Davis’s piece with Tengedal will be presented as an installation in the CBC Radio Room, allowing the public to view it through the large street-level windows. It will alternate with another piece done by Sheppard and Natasha. As to what audiences can expect, Davis is tentative and tight-lipped. “I won’t reveal Kim’s piece,” she hints, “but ours is titled Neither Science Nor Magic Took Responsibility. It is an animated story of an old lady suffering from an unknown illness that is slowly breaking apart her body.” The presentation will not be a one-time-only event. According to Davis, it will be the start of OUTeast’s public screening series, called Queer Film in Public Spaces: The OUTeast peepIN project. “The peepshow was one of the precursors to cinema,” she says. “This screening series is a precursor to our festival. It’s a little metaphor.”
For more information about Nocturne, check out their website at nocturnehalifax.ca.
If you want to find out more about OUTeast, you can find their website at outeastfilmfest.com.
Why you can trust Xtra
