The Homing Project is an interdisciplinary project taking root online and at Toronto’s Evergreen Brick Works. The Brick Works’ history connects clay and home: the earth excavated from the quarry became the buildings and houses of Toronto. The remaining empty void suggests an inverse city — a space which acts as a portal between inside and outside, absence and presence. Now filled with plants and ponds, and home to a multitude of creatures, the Brick Works shows the potential of repaired and re-imagined habitats.
Four Rooms
This past summer Juliet Palmer and Ayelet Rose Gottlieb guided participants from around Turtle Island in a series of online vocal creation workshops — Sing Around the House. Exploring four rooms of the house as sites of healing, risk, sustenance and rest, our collective vocal creations formed the sonic bedrock for four new dance films by choreographer Aria Evans. Four Rooms launched December, 2021 at the City Builders Gallery, Evergreen Brick Works, with live sound scores performed by Ayelet and Juliet.
Without Borders, Without Limits
Composer-performers Mingjia Chen, Alejandra Nuñez and Juliet Palmer worked with Spanish and Mandarin speaking seniors in the Without Borders, Without Limits program, a community-engaged photography and writing project connecting newcomer and refugee seniors. Responding to the seniors’ photography portfolios we wove images, words, music and sound into three music videos celebrating creativity and connection during a year of enormous challenges.
“No, No, No More Loneliness, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Happy Day!”
Can you imagine leading a choir of seniors over the telephone? That’s what Access Alliance and their amazing team at Ring and Sing have been doing during Covid. We were delighted to support singer-songwriters Alex Samaras and Robin Dann in a creative residency over the past winter, writing songs with seniors, weaving together childhood memories and neighbourhood stories. Thanks to Access Alliance for welcoming us into their program for this beautiful collaboration.
Memos From Home
Last spring, during the quiet isolation of lockdown the creative team — Parker Dirks, Aria Evans, Falen Johnson, and Juliet Palmer — connected through an ongoing exchange of creative prompts. Each new work inspired the next, connecting our separate lives. 11 artists joined us last summer: Jani Lauzon and Tara Sky, Ximena Huizi, Nigel Edwards, Belinda Corpuz, Sonja Rainey, Germaine Liu, Nikki Shaffeullah, Mariah Meawasige, charles c smith and Alex Samaras.
Looking back we see that the bricks from the quarry everywhere — they enclose us inside our homes, and stretch out the city’s fingers into Lake Ontario.
Holding Us Together
Our ceramics off-shoot Holding Us Together, led by Parker Dirks, brought together families from St Jamestown and supporters of the Evergreen Brick Works Farmers Market.
Thank you!
We are immensely grateful for the support of the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council and Evergreen Brick Works in the development of this project.
Urbanvessel 