Sight Unseen: An Un-camouflaging for Guildwood
A collaborative project (2014) with Community Arts Guild Youth Troupe
Commissioned for Restless Precinct, an outdoor exhibition and performance series at Guildwood Park in Scarborough, Ontario
Curated by SUM°: Orev Reena Katz aka Radiodress and Alize Zorlutuna
Assistant Facilitator: Andrea Thring
Performers/Participants: Tomås Cavalheiro-Chin, Dillon Cox, Karis Jones-Pard, Stephanie Kroone and Kaitlynn Rodgers
Final Performance Photos: Katherine Fleitas
In 2014, I developed a collaborative project with the Community Arts Guild Youth Troupe for Restless Precinct at Guildwood Park in Scarborough, Ontario. Over six weeks, participants created and personalized Ghillie suits and developed movements in response to the site, culminating in a collective performance exploring visibility, belonging, and relationships with the environments around them.
Guildwood Park is a layered and constructed landscape, shaped by Indigenous and settler histories, suburban development, cultivated gardens, and architectural fragments salvaged from demolished buildings in downtown Toronto. Classical columns, arches, and sculptures (many originating from banks and other institutions) sit as displaced remnants of the city's architectural and economic history within the park and the culturally diverse community of Scarborough. Participants responded directly to these structures in developing the performance, including creating a Ghillie covering for the head of a classical female nude positioned among a series of columns.
The site also carries a history of military use. During the Second World War, the Guild property was requisitioned by the federal government and operated as HMCS Bytown II, where members of the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS), known as the Wrens, received specialized training in wireless communications. It was later transformed into Scarborough Hall, a military hospital for returning service personnel. These overlapping histories of military camouflage, gender, art, architecture, and the shaping of landscape became part of the context of the work. Moving slowly and awkwardly through the park, the performers alternately disappeared into and stood out against their surroundings. Camouflage became a way of playing with what a landscape conceals and reveals, its histories, bodies, and structures of belonging.
Community Arts Guild is an offshoot of Jumblies Theatre. Art making sessions were held at the Cedar Ridge Creative Centre and Guildwood Park. Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council for Emerging Artist and Exhibition Assistance grants in support of this work.
