PERIODICAL TWO by The Periodical Project

Elizabeth Johnson

FEBRUARY 2012 Issue 2 - Light / Dark Cover by Elizabeth Johnson Welcome to the second issue of The Periodical Project. We aim to promote encourage and excite Halifax based emerging Artists. We present to a broad audience the Art produced in Halifax to increase its exposure and profile, here and across the country. Periodical two features 12 Halifax based Artists and their interpretations on the theme of LIGHT/DARK. The pieces collected here find beauty in the shadows, shed light on dark emotions and seek meaning from the spectrum of our everyday experiences.

The theme for PERIODICAL THREE is Authenticity. Submissions for our third issue are due March 15, 2012. Please consider Advertising or placing a Listing in PERIODICAL THREE to help us fund this project. Send Questions / Comments / Submissions / Donations! / Art Directory Listings to theperiodicalproject@gmail.com Also check out our online presence at theperiodicalproject.tumblr.com facebook.com/theperiodicalproject - Chris Foster & Natalie Slater

Elizabeth Johnson has recently been re-creating the mistranslations that appear within technology. She takes pleasure in glitches and has been transferring the split second malfunctions that occur on the screen into tangible prints through lithography, offset colour prints and drawings.

Alan Derek Barbour had to quit a lot of jobs to get where he is today. Current obsession involves black and white film photography with a street approach. Images reveal simple truths about our environment and conflict with doctrine.

cargocollective.com/elizabethjohnson making.strangers@gmail.com

Future contact to be determined.

Magnus von Tiesenhausen: Maker of Loud/Quiet Music, Light/Dark Printed Matter, and Structural/Atmospheric Videos. Long Hums, Fun Moms, Numb Nuns.

Kathryn Johnson lives and navelgazes in Halifax, N.S. Introspective drawings/ comics/crushes.

magnus.vont@gmail.com Corey J. Isenor, originally from Enfield, Nova Scotia, received his Fine Arts degree from Mount Allison University in 2010 and now lives in Halifax. His current studio practice concentrates heavily on drawing, photography, a bit of sculpture and multimedia work with a focus on exploring abstraction, the natural environment and our relationship between the two. www.wix.com/cjisenor/corey-isenor coreyisenor.bandcamp.com/ Andrew Patterson makes poems with words, songs with drums and friends with money and/or good looks. He is a freelance music journalist whose work appears regularly in The Coast and online at SouthernSouls.ca. In summer, he curates an outdoor film series called Open Air(e) Films. In winter, he listens to Galaxie 500 and drinks tea to excess. themangrovesgoquiet.wordpress.com Daniel Espeset is an internationally renown artist and writer, whose most recent body of work Land of Enchantment is on exhibition at Lost & Found (2383 Agricola Street) through February 10th 2012. He maintains an ongoing daily photography project at letmebebrief.com. He lives with his partner and one cat in North End Halifax. He works in a studio space above the Army Navy Store. letmebebrief.com Laura Thorne is a writer and student who makes art whenever she’s at a loss for words. wordsweknowbyheart.tumblr.com.

Raised in New Brunswick, Kyle Cunjak’s hard working attitude stems from a traumatic incident he experienced at the tender age of six when children’s songwriter Fred Penner yelled at him from stage and made him cry. He studied photography at Mount Allison & the NBCCD and has been working for himself as a photographer/musician for the past seven years, struggling to find a darkroom and shooting film almost exclusively. www.cunjak.com www.cunjak.tumblr.com Andrew Maize is an aspiring optimist with pessimistic/realistic tendencies. He is concraftualizing a skater-generated power turbine for the Emera Oval and developing a DuChampian kite factory that will produce sustainable power, pleasure and prosperity in Nova Scotia. www.wix.com/andrewmaize/andrewmaize Kira Duabe has always shied away from calling herself an artist. She likes to write and recently self published a book of poetry and writing called Things In Kind. She is currently working on something described as creative nonfiction. Bethany Riordan-Butterworth has been living and working in Halifax since 2003. Her interest in getting to know people and sharing experiences often leads to collaborative work, such as the Fuller Lecture Series and the Secret Tumbler Project. fullerlectures.com breadandbutterpottery.com

Magnus von Tiesenhausen 22

Corey J. Isenor

I have always thought I have never been awake In the short hairs of a ball field with the fading evening light caught behind a policeman, I came clean This clean consciousness had me wound up I thought I might finally write something daring a song about the impossible purity of light a prescription to keep others awake a field manual for the amateurs The chalk-lined field did not go on forever but I was clean and felt awake as ever No longer lost in thought, I was light on my feet and purposeful Finally, seeing where the light came from knowing that above this field all thought was clean All clouds awake and windless Even the setting sun, awake! An international orange light that once put my clean hands in false contrast with good, honest field work. Suddenly stouthearted, I thought of declaring victory over the sun

In the stillness, hoping for a dream trying to let disappear the words and gospel, and the thought of God dying alone in the dark Remember, don't put your hands over your heart and for God's sake, don't think of what your heart would have you dream Amidst this dark deluge words come swiftly and you are unprepared for you've never thought too hard on dying as surely dying lay at the heart of no matter And while death is thoughtless, words often dream of murdering their speaker in a dark, soundless room and somehow that dark seems to us preferable rather than dying in the purity of light Still, no dream will come to you. Still heart and restless words; you are painfully aware and so awake! The words come swiftly and the dark has now flooded completely No more thought. Hands off your heart You are not dying, nor allowing yourself to dream

A thought not fully awake, had in a field A dream not fully had, of words dying in a field where light and consciousness came clean and awfully early where a dark heart is preferable

Andrew Patterson

Daniel Espeset

Laura Thorne

Alan Barbour

Kathryn Johnson

Kyle Cunjak

Andrew Maize

Bethany Riordan-Butterworth and Kira Daube live and work in Halifax. Recorded during a cold and dark time of year, this conversation is about resilience. BRB: There are a couple of things that’s I’m pretty certain that I know about you: one is that you once dug a grave in your backyard, and another is that for part of last winter you lived alone in a cabin in the woods. KD: Those are two very funny things to juxtapose (laughs). BRB: It seems that they are both quite particular experiences, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about each of them. KD: Wow. I haven’t thought about the grave for a while. The grave….there was a reason for the grave. I was going to NSCAD and was taking an intro photo class with Richard Hines. He would let us do whatever we wanted, pretty much. So one thing I wanted to make ended up being a 6-foot tall platform that had a big window at the top, I would press people on top and take pictures from below. But in building that, I was running into some problems and also had this vision of taking photos of people in the ground, so started to dig this grave (laughs). Which did get to be, I think, 5 feet deep? I didn’t get to the full 6, but also heard recently that they only dig graves to be 4 feet deep now. Mostly what I remember about that experience is hitting a lot of shale, and realizing how much rock we live on and spooking out a couple of my roommates. But it filled up with water really quickly cause it rained a lot in that next week. I don’t know what else to say about that (laughs). BRB: I was mostly curious. KD: Ok. And last winter, in January, almost a year ago, I was not having an easy time and found myself planning my escape. I was just, I don’t know, I was going to leave. I had enough rent to leave for my roommates for a month so that they could find someone else, I was just going to go… and then I said something to a co-worker and he said, “ If you’re thinking about leaving, you should talk it out.” And so I talked it out and quit my job and gave a month’s notice and called up Windhorse and asked how much it would cost to rent out a cabin for a month. Before I left I didn’t have much to say to people, I just felt like being quiet a lot of the time, so it felt appropriate to go. And it was pretty easy to be quiet, and I just needed the space to like, be happy, or be sad, or climb back into bed, or go for long walks, and not know what time it was for a whole month. Just take a lot of time to cook, and watch the forest, and follow animal tracks and try to be quiet and sneak up on deer. BRB: You laughed about the juxtaposition of these two experiences. KD: Because it seems like a morbid thing to dig a grave. So that, next to anything else, I think looks funny. I haven’t thought about being morbid for quite a while but I think I kind of am (laughs). And come to think about it, did think a ton about death while I was away at that cabin. Which I just expect would happen to anyone who is alone for that long, like I think it just naturally happens when you’re traveling alone, or are away from familiar people and situations. BRB: I was thinking about how I would describe you, and what I settled on was that you are someone who is familiar with darkness, both emotionally and physically. I wonder what you think about that.

KD: I think that’s pretty accurate. I sometimes feel, or have felt, that the darkness has become too easy. And more recently have just wanted to be lighter, but also acknowledge that it happens at the same time, a lot of the time. Like I struggle when people ask me if I’m ok because I am, of course I’m ok, and of course I can recognize that there are a lot of great things around me, and that I have a love of people, and an interest in things, but everything is awful at the same time. Things are hard and from what I hear, nothing gets easier (laughs). And everything keeps changing. But I’m very intrigued by people who are really good at celebrating things, and who are really good at letting that lightness be overwhelming, rather than letting the darkness be overwhelming. When someone is feeling dark, it can be overwhelming to those around them, and I’m not always sure that is fair. Although I don’t think that those dark sides and dark times need to be feared. BRB: This familiarity with darkness also means that you bring lightness to things that are heavy. I’ve heard you talk about the death of two grandmothers and you’ve brought this incredible peacefulness to those experiences. I wonder how you come to that. KD: Someone asked me recently “When do you think you are good to have around?” and I said “I think people like to have me around when they’re dying” and she said “Me too!” (laughs). Sometimes I’ve tried to figure that out. I do think that when people are dying it seems that some kind of honesty comes up, some kind of drive to be honest. And I really like that. I really like honest people. I think I always have. For whatever reason I think I’ve always been pretty sensitive to whether people are being real, and really enjoy it when people say what they mean and do what they want to do and are who they are. And aspire to do the same. With both my grandmothers, one was much more lucid than the other at the end, but both seemed to get to those points where they couldn’t really do much other than be honest, in very different ways. So in some ways, even though I knew what was happening to a certain extent, it was easy to be around. But at the same time I guess that it’s also pretty challenging, and takes a while to deconstruct. I think a lot of bullshit can come up once someone has died. And that’s pretty troubling. Someone said to me today that when you add or subtract a person from a situation, it totally changes the dynamics of everyone else that’s left. And I’ve definitely felt that within my family in the past couple of years, especially. It’s always changing. BRB: You do many things: you cook, you travel, you make mischief, you also write, is there something that you identify most as? KD: After my lecture this summer, your dad said to me, “You must have a writing practice. If you don’t you should.” It was first time anyone had pointedly said and asked those things, and it made me really happy. I think since, some people have called me a writer, which feels really strange, but I’m honored. I’ve always shied away from being called an artist, but also have felt a little dishonest refusing it. I really like to write, and I feel like that is the one thing that I’ve always done, from when I was really young. And I’ve kind of just come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter if I’m good or not (laughs). I don’t have so much control over that judgment, but I really like to do it so I don’t want to stop.

BRB: This past fall, you produced a small book of poetry and writing called Things In Kind. Are you currently working on anything? KD: Yeah! I’m working on creative nonfiction. It’s been helpful for me to name what it is. A while a go I applied for a mentorship through the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia, which I did not get. In the application I had to describe my practice, and I was trying to figure out what I do, and I think I ended up calling what I do ‘confessional prose’ or something like that. And then, a little while later, I heard something described as creative nonfiction, and I asked my friend Sam Sternberg “What exactly is creative nonfiction? What is this thing?” She explained it, and last week I read this thing that I had written to her, and I was like “Is that creative nonfiction?” and she was like “Yeah! That’s what that is!” and I was like “Awesome!” (laughs). It’s nice to know what you do. I am realizing that I want to write about what’s going on here, now. For a while I was

11 & 12

trying to write stories that conveyed the same message as what I was learning from my day-today interactions with people, and I think more recently have just realized that I think it’s actually pretty important to write about what’s going on in Halifax, and who we all are. Which feels a little scary, because I feel like it’s a responsibility, and also I worry that people won’t realize how impressed I am with everybody. And I worry that it won’t come across in my writing. Because I think a lot of my writing is a little dirty, too, like it’s not overly descriptive. I think that is also something that explains like how I feel dark and light a lot of the time, like sometimes I can really erase the description and just…look at something. And I think that’s a scary place to sit, that sometimes I don’t feel one way or the other about something, so sometimes that feels or looks like depression, and sometimes it opens up the world.

Kira Duabe interviewed by Bethany Riordan-Butterworth0

Invisible Publishing www.invisiblepublishing.com info@invisiblepublishing.com

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The Bus Stop Theatre 2203 Gottingen Street www.thebusstoptheatre.org 888.369.1169

Performing Arts, Black-Box, Rental Venue for Emerging Artists and Engaged Audiences

JOSHUA COLLINS MASTERS OF ARCHITECTURE ‘11 WWW.ARC1087.COM/JCOLLINS 902.877.6621 Daniel Joyce danieljoyce.ca / danjoy.tumblr.com ddjoyce@gmail.com Centre for Art Tapes 902.422.6822 / centreforarttapes.ca cfat.communications@ns.sympatico.ca #220-1657 Barrington St. (Roy Building) Michael Fuller www.themichaelfullerwebsite.com rivinus@gmail.com

I offer design and construction services for sustainable, collaborative and inspired projects. Outlandish or humble ideas encouraged.

Yabba Dabba Do! The Centre for Art Tapes supports artists at all levels working with electronic media including video, audio, and new media, through residencies, scholarships, production facilities, the presentation of media art exhibitions and screenings. I Leica You

Pictures of people and places

Kyle Cunjak Photography www.cunjak.com / cunjak.tumblr.com kyle@cunjak.com 902.431.5334 / 902.999.3269

Things on film

DIVORCE DISTRO lost & found - 2383 Agricola St. www.divorcerecords.ca

experimental | punk | jazz | international | other ::::: a choice selection of new vinyl :::::

Forward Music forwardmusicgroup.com info@forwardmusicgroup.com

Paper Beat Scissors / Gypsophilia / Snailhouse / The Olympic Symphonium / Gianna Lauren

Auberge Evelyn Ordway Roche Hotel 19 Bridge Street, Sackville New Brunswick

Un-hostel, Spring 2012

ABC de Natalie www.abcdenatalie.blogspot.com natalie.slater@gmail.com

An alphabetical list of things I like

AAron McKenzie FrAser Photographer

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