Long Distance Art
We are so excited to tell you about Long Distance Art, the newest project on The Social Distancing Festival. We think that this work is exciting, rigorous, and important, and we cannot WAIT to share it with you!
Over the past few weeks, SDF creator Nick has been busy “matchmaking” artists from different artistic disciplines in different cities around the world, tasking them to collaborate on a new piece of art that will be exhibited on The Social Distancing Festival. These unbelievable artists hail from places including Toronto, Dar es Salaam, Ohio, Calgary, New York, and Adelaide. These artists include musicians, painters, composers, dancers, fibre artists, and multimedia designers.
The artwork is underway, and will be posted here relatively soon - don’t worry we will let you know via social media (you should really follow us, btw). Please check it out, spread the word, and click here if you’re interested in learning more about how you can support Long Distance Art!
Love, the SDF Team
Dar es Salaam and Toronto
For this instalment of Long Distance Art, I paired Tadhi Alawi, an astoundingly beautiful dancer in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania whose work is one of the most-viewed pieces on the site, with Toronto-based musical composing and writing trio Anika Johnson, Barbara Johnston, and Suzy Wilde. These three are well-known for their innovative, clean, and deeply cool work.
The forthcoming project - a dance video choreographed to a new song - is sure to astound and move viewers, given the great bond that quickly formed between all of these artists.
Calgary and Ohio
This Long Distance Art pairing consists of visual artists Simone Elizabeth Saunders from Calgary, Canada, and Tekikki Walker, from Ohio, USA.
I wanted to leave Simone and Tekikki largely to their own devices when it came to this collaboration. In many ways, having artists of a similar discipline, one that is generally tactile and largely visual, is a harder task in this format. They have, of course, come up with something brilliant!
Adelaide and New York City
This interdisciplinary pairing for Long Distance Art includes Liza Merkalova, a painter in Adelaide, South Australia, and Charlie Rauh, a musician in New York, USA.
In conversations with both Liza and Charlie, we decided on a process that involved Liza sending Charlie an existing painting of hers, which he used as inspiration to compose new guitar music. This music has been sent back to Liza, who is using it as inspiration to create a new painting. I have a feeling that this work will be really, really beautiful.