Performance Art
Bisia Belina has created and participated in a number of multi-media performance art installations within the local community.
Composing “Water”
Bisia has strong passion for engaging, educating, and connecting people to reflect on our relationship with water. In doing so Bisia has participated in a number of community engagement opportunities related to water.
In these interactive experiences water is represented by bolts of fabric that, as they unravel become symbols of rivers. Multiple rivers of cloth unfurl in staggered timing, eventually converging with the others to create “One River.” The rivers of cloth have multilingual translations for the word water written on them.
Each river has a recording of a soundscape associated with them. The text/lyric for water are sourced from 150 different language translations. As the rivers open before you their sounds accompany their unfurling. They eventually become one river and their sounds emerge to create a whole new composition.
Below are some different examples of Bisia’s performance art related to water has been experienced within the community.
University of Victoria Workshop
In October 2019 Bisia participated in offering a workshop to students in Social Justice Studies at the University of Victoria. The class “The Political and Social Life of Water” was instructed by Helen Demers. Bisia was invited to share her reflections and interactive workshop offering on our experiences with water with the students of this class.
Nous Sommes
From June 21 to July 12, 2019 Bisia Belina and Anna Malkin presented a video art installation titled Nous Sommes at Flux Media Gallery.
This installation emanated from two earlier performance pieces, Toi Moi and Water (see below), that were created for a larger performative evening, Sound is a Wave (2017). The pieces radiate from experimental, improvisational, vocal sound works made up of multilingual translations.
Nous Sommes concentrates on the essential exercise of You and I (Toi Moi) becoming Us or We, as we work collectively, in a unified way, to protect the indispensable resource of water. Using extensive video projection, the audience is placed into the bigger picture, where their images, shadows and physical bodies are imposed on and incorporated into images and sculptural representations of water.
World Water Day 2019 @ the Royal BC Museum
Bisia Belina, Helene Demers and Serap Brown collaborated for World Water Day 2019 (March) by hosting a Celebration of Water at the Royal BC Museum. The “Water” video by Bisia Belina, performed in Sound is a Wave in November 2017, and an interactive art installation launched the Celebration Day for Water.
Sound is a Wave
The following 3 videos are pieces from the Sound is a Wave performance by Bisia Belina and friends of SoundBody Studio. Performed on November 17 & 18, 2018 at the Metro Theatre in Victoria B.C.
Toi Moi
Video Credit: Anna Malkin, dovetailmediaworks.com (Additional information about Anna below)
Performance Credit: Pauline Karch and Ken Seidman
Cracking Wide Open
Video Credit: Anna Malkin, dovetailmediaworks.com (Additional information about Anna below)
Water
Water is a short video piece by vocal performance artist, Bisia Belina in collaboration with independent videomaker, Anna Malkin. Water was developed from an improvisational vocal exploration and was featured in the larger multi-media performance, Sound is a Wave, produced by SoundBody Studio in 2017. Video documentation of the original performance is combined with additional video and performance footage to create the current video version of Water.
(Note: Water is currently unavailable for viewing as we are applying to showcase the video at a Festival.)
Video Credit: Anna Malkin, dovetailmediaworks.com (Additional information about Anna below)
PRODUCTION SUPPORT TEAM
A special thanks to the following people for their production support services:
Anna Malkin (dovetailmediaworks.com)
Anna Malkin has worked in film, video and sound in one way or another since attending the Ontario College of Art (AOCA 1990). She has produced a number of her own independent pieces in film, video, audio and animation. Anna worked in the feature film and TV industry in Toronto for over 10 years as a Foley Recording Assistant and as a Dialogue Editor (Over 70 IMDB.com credits). She has coordinated, produced and edited countless independent video productions for artists and for independent producers in the art, documentary and educational genres. Anna is half of the instructional video production company MROdigital.com, providing instructional videos for industrial mechanical and electrical systems and she is all of Dovetail Mediaworks, an independent production company that specializes in community, independent and artist projects. She is also the proud founder of onmyplanet.ca (est. 2011), a trans and queer positive website that is home to The Queer Story Archive, an ever expanding collection of personal experience stories from everyone under the rainbow and the people who love us (over 135 stories available online). Anna was one of the primary developers of Gender Ally (genderally.ca), a series of workshop materials on trans, Two Spirit and gender non-conforming inclusion that emanate from the stories produced for The Queer Story Archive, funded by The Victoria Foundation. Developed by onmyplanet.ca in partnership with Artemis Place alternative high school in Victoria, BC.