Suzanne Caines - Performance Artist - Halifax, Nova Scotia, NS, Canada

I have recently been creating ‘activated situations’ for my performance pieces. This has involved projects sited within the public domain that question the habits, behaviour and opinions of individuals and society in general. My projects intend to cause a disruption in the everyday flow of events that force viewers to reassess their understanding of accepted codes of behaviour, value systems and social conditioning. These projects centre on a form of transaction or exchange...

Actual - Halifax, Canada - 2007 Banff Centre For The Arts - Banff, Canada - 2006 Transmediale - Berlin, Germany - 2006 The Nunnery Gallery - London, England - 2006 Foldback - London, England - 2006 Vertex List - New York, USA - 2005

Residency at the Banff Center - 2006 The piece called Memories at the Banff Springs Hotel, Drawing Conversations and Canoe Ride deals with the need for human contact in contemporary society and what lengths one would go to obtain this contact. In Memories at the Banff Springs Hotel, I am asking random people if they could share a special memory with me. I do not specify what the memory should be, this is left open for their interpretation. In the piece called Conversations the piece shows a women entering a room waiting to escape from the everyday life and not knowing how to make that leap and connect to others.
This piece is meant to repeat continuously with no ending or conclusion. In today’s society there is a cultural phenomenon of loneliness and feelings of being disconnected from a community. The globalised world economy demands a modern nomadism from the individual. As traditional families are being dissolved the need to create other connections is imperative. Needing to connect with others reflects the phenomenon of people yearning for a sense of belonging and towards a cultural or ethnic group's collective pursuit of identity. This fear of being alone is relevant since it touches on the question of one's own (individual, collective, ethnic or cultural) identity.

Relocation - 2006 This piece deals with the need for human contact in contemporary society and what lengths we would go to obtain this contact. Traditional family connections have been lost in current society and replaced with fabricated families, work and consumerism. The possibilities of home being a specific location or a state of mind are explored in this piece. I participated in a performance festival called Visualeyes at Latitude 53 in Edmonton, Alberta
I was interested in how people replace what they have left behind when they have relocated and how these stories are similar. I was dressed quite professionally with a clip board in the Edmonton Mall. With a sheet that looked official, I asked questions of passersby and I filled it out when they answered the questions. The questions consisted of "Where are you from?", "When did you leave?", "What do you miss most of the place you left behind?", "Describe this place.", "How or what replaces this thing in Edmonton? Describe." After they finished this questionnaire I gave them a souvenir that represents home and familiarity to me. This souvenir was a plaster nail. for video documentation click click here.

Residency at Marnay-sur-seine CAMAC - 2005 In this group of work there are several links that deal with personal space, awkward situations and how we make contact with others in contemporary society. During my two-month residency in France, I addressed issues surrounding culture exchange and identity which many of us face in a consumerist society. In the video piece called Rock the Boat I looked at how we construct and define Canadian culture and how that differs from the people of Marnay-sur-seine. I had one of the local women read what I had translated only using a French phrasebook. In this writing, I ask about her daily routine and how she experiences life in Marnay-sur-seine.

Blue Hammer - 2004 In some of these performances the work centres on a transaction or exchange. For example in the performance piece Blue Hammer I have gone to a hardware store and created an “activated situation” by holding a promotional test. I have asked the customers to tell me which hammer they prefer after they can take a free blue plaster hammer that I have made, with them. This blue hammer also operates slightly as a pun; as a tool that symbolizes an act of force and here used as a pretext for social interaction.
As the piece continues the lines are blurred and there is confusion about what role each of us belong to. On this occasion I am examining how our individual needs and freedoms are altered on a daily basis as we move between public and commercial spaces. Presenting the memento of the hammer to the participants could be seen as making more of this interaction than the parties seem to have agreed to and in that way opens up the issues further but also could be construed as slightly underhand or mocking. The souvenir exists prior to the experience. And the experience is then enacted for it and will be remembered by the participant through the souvenir. I imagine the participants coming across their souvenirs now and again and sort of reminiscing around this dumb object. This as very much how memory operates, tied to such approximate or indifferent objects and images. My work also explores identity issues that many of us face in a current consumer society. for video documentation click here.

I Don't Even Try - 2004 In the piece called I don’t Even Try I have attempted to express a felt account of habit, fantasy and boredom, which grasps at the texture of our everyday lives. This work focuses on ritual acts (both private and social) as one that references the archain, primitive and transgressive, at times bringing with it elements of humour and social exclusivity. Through marginality and urban loneliness, there are progressive possibilities, the audience is invited to re-evaluate what they think is permissive and the preconceived ideas of normalcy. The use of pretending is used in this piece, it could be pretending to be someone else or to be somewhere else.
This piece demonstrates what I am doing with my idle time. Everyday activities are transformed into a humble vision of a fantasy landscape or space. The protagonist appears to be hyper real against the cinematic background image. The loud noises crashing and banging are all too real brining them to the foreground. We begin to scrutinize her in this environment because we can relate to this banal activity of cooking. We begin to get a sense of who she might be and her relationship in this space. She is not represented politically she is natural and ordinary in this space. We feel her sense of loneliness and separation from the outside world. The song title is the title of this piece and it there are many meanings that one can read into I Don’t Even Try. The protagonist doesn’t even try to make contact to the outside world, emphasising the melancholy in the piece. for video documentation click here.