STRANGE CHANNELS
Two days of art and performance from in and around our waterways, curated by three new generation artists
On June 7 & 8th, 2024, Samantha Tai, Shalaka Jadhav, and Torin Langen hosted three events at the Inter Arts Matrix studio. On Friday evening, Samantha Tai hosted an evening of in-the-round music, storytelling, and community with Ayesha Ahad, J-One, and Shannon Lee. On Saturday afternoon, Shalaka Jadhav and their collaborator Olivia Prior facilitated participants through the creation of e-textile sensors and soft circuity using found materials along Schneider Creek. On Saturday evening, Torin Langen held a surrealist film screening and performance, featuring works by Jacob Zebeck, Torin Langen and John Hofsess, with a live score from members of Heir Loom, Thou Shalt, and Loon Town.
This project is funded by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council.
Photographs taken by Camila Schiavo.
New Generation Artists
Shalaka Jadhav spent their childhood between cities in India and in Dubai, before moving to a neighbourhood spitting distance from Ontario's largest mall. They now join from Block 2 of the Haldimand Tract, splitting their time on Treaty 1 territory. Trained as an urban planner, Shalaka followed the advice of an aptitude test to pursue curatorial studies, and is currently practicing as a researcher, writer, and curator. Shalaka is interested in hosting and hospitality as a framework for problem-solving that untangles conversations around power dynamics and relationships to spaces and places. Shalaka has worked across multiple roles, including radio journalism, social innovation, service design, in urban planning departments, on rooftop gardens, and farms. Across their work, they strive to apply an ecosystem approach of thinking, dreaming, and sustaining. Shalaka is an Emerging Curator as part of the inaugural University of Manitoba School of Art Gallery Visiting Curator Program, and a member of the Relationships, Reciprocity, Exchange Collective at OCAD University. They'll likely point out the names of "weeds" as you walk together, enjoy studying the menus of local restaurants, and always order dessert.
Torin Langen is an Ontario-based multimedia artist and filmmaker, specializing in fabrication and video production. His previous directorial credits include the horror feature 3 Dead Trick or Treaters, the expressionist short Offerings, and a lengthy list of elaborate music videos. With a background in narrative film, Torin incorporates his love for folk art and sculpture into his moving image work. Carrying out most aspects of production independently, including costuming, set design, cinematography and editing, he emphasizes organic texture, tactility and intricate design. His work has been exhibited internationally at film festivals, underground music venues and galleries, and released on DVD and Blu-Ray in North America and Europe. Torin is currently a full-time creative, producing video, sculpture and costuming for a range of projects and collaborators. In the fall of 2022, Torin was a recipient of an Arts Award Waterloo Region in the emerging artist category.
Samantha Tai is a singer, songwriter, and community musician currently based in Kitchener, Ontario. She is pursuing an M.A. in Community Music at Wilfrid Laurier University and is especially interested in the many ways that participatory music-making can be used to promote community engagement and social action. Samantha works in the Heffner Studio at Kitchener Public Library where she provides support to budding musicians and producers and runs musicbased programming for newcomer Canadian youth. She is also a songwriter for the Lullaby Project, an initiative that pairs new mothers with a songwriter to write and record a personalized lullaby for their baby.
