WEDNESDAY May 24 DAY Part A

photo: Vida Simon in ESCAPE

Part A: More Gym! More Vida!

Two things make this a FABULOUS MORNING!

Grrrreat workout at GMacEwan 7:45 am:
20 min. bike, 10 min static machines UP body,
15 min. ellyptical, 10 min static mach LWR body,
10 min. row machine, 10 min ab/back mat,
15 min. stretch, shower/steam/shower/steam/shower

AND

Terrific performance 10:00 am by Vida Simon.
Vida performs ESCAPE 4 hours every day
in her posh 18th floor room at Edmonton Coast Hotel & Resort.

Jessica (gallery crew member) escorted a small group of us
to Vida's room that is almost entirely papered with white newsprint.
6 or 7 charcoal drawings leaned up in a corner where Vida, dressed in striped
pajamas, continued to draw/write/erase/re-layer drawings and writings
as we settled noisily on papered chairs, bed, endtables.
The largest wall had thoughts/journal entries and daily topics.

"Tues: childhood/excavation, Wed: becoming an artist,
Thurs: economics, Fri. excape/freedom, Sat. folding stories.
Escape. I dreamed of this for a long time. A complicated escape
but not really a retreat because with you ar here."

Vida seemed to draw images from memories, dreams, what she saw
out the hotel window, herself looking at her self looking out the window,
images of brains/walnuts, hands holding/surrounding, events of glam hotel life
like swimming in the spa pool; each one erased and re-layered
by negative/positive layers of charcoal and more images.

Like a child with an oversized set of paper/tools, Vida wrote words
directly to us in the audience, changing meaning by adding numbers/letters:

"desire to create pictures at age of 3/
not conscious choice/ a search for a visual language"
altered to "desire to draw at age of 35/need to embody visual language".

Her work touches on home/away, public/private, representation/identity,
history of visual/performance art, memory, dream,
oppression of domestic life, and so much more.

Vida Simon took Child Pose from yoga and breathed, She opened walnuts
and gave them to audience, ate them herself, placed them on her drawing.
Was it an ear? A medula oblongata? She stood and looked out the window
and when we looked at her looking, we looked at her drawing and saw
her looking in the same pose she embodied. Watching Vida is like seeing
a skilled jazz musician freely improvise. Bearing witness and being there
in the audience is like watching a bird fly.

This work thrilled me. It suceeds in meaning so much with so little.
Every gesture and action is loaded like a boiled down tincture of meaning,
representation, symbol, sign, code, ritual.... Watching good performance
is like watching/feeling an onion peeling in front of your very eyes.

Tomorrow, I shall have to get up even earlier
so I can have MORE GYM and MORE VIDA !!!

Love,
La Dragu, the Scribe