DATE: Thursday, September 19th, 2024
TIME: 7pm – 7:30pm
LOCATION: 2nd floor galleries
COST: This event is part of AWE at Night.
Accessibility: Accessibility and accommodation requests must be made at least two weeks in advance of the event. Please contact shinch@artwindsoressex.ca for questions.
Love Me… is made up of a chorus of 10 violins/fiddles, each mounted on a music stand. The violins/fiddles are in various conditions, giving each violin a personality of its own. Through each violin/fiddle body, six individual voices are heard. In all 35 voices, say “Love me” in 35 different languages.
A black pillow rests on a black music stand facing the grouping. The 35 voices are both heard and felt individually through the pillow when it is picked up and held to the viewers body. On one side of the pillow is an embroidered ‘Love me’ with the same phrase in braille below. On the other side is an embroidered ‘Love me’ in American Sign Language. The intent is to make the experience of the installation as accessible and inclusive as possible for everyone.
The overall installation references the classical arrangement of a conductor and musicians. While violins are often associated with sad and emotional pieces, they are equally adept at conveying joy and happiness. There is also a relationship between beautiful violin music and strong attraction. In the same way, “love me” can be expressed in manners that range from desperation to longing, to hope and indeed to joy.
David Bobier is a hard-of-hearing and disabled media artist whose creative practice is researching and developing vibrotactile technology as a creative medium and language of expression. This ongoing work led to his establishment of VibraFusionLab, originally in London, Ontario, a creative, multi-media, multi-sensory centre that has gained a reputation as a leader in accessibility for the Deaf and disability arts movement in Canada and internationally. The Lab has recently been re-established in Hamilton, Ontario.
As a practicing artist, his exhibition career includes 18 solo and over 30 group exhibition projects across Canada, France, Costa Rica, and the UK. Bobier’s independent work as an artist and as Director of VibraFusionLab has received funding from Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Grand NCE (National Centres of Excellence), Province of Quebec and British Council Canada, QC-UK Connections, Farnham Maltings, the High Commission of Canada in the UK, Stimuleringsfonds Begroting Grant, Amsterdam. Bobier has served in advisory roles in developing Deaf and disability arts Equity programs for both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council and was an invited participant in the Canada Council for the Arts – The Arts in a Digital World Summit and a panel presenter at the Global Disability Summit in London, UK. Bobier has twice received Canada Council for the Arts support.
