...don't cry
Site-responsive performance/installation ritual.
Collaboratively created, directed by Lesley Ewen.
The piece ‘drew history from the walls’ of a birthing
room in what use to be the Annie McCall Maternity
Hospital; the room where Lesley was born. The
room, now an art studio, was rigged with materials
the performers worked with ritualistically: honey,
bee's wax, eggs, water, a red dress drawn from of
a hole in the ceiling and milk poured into a cavity
in the floor boards. Occasionally, the performers
would interrupt their activities to rewind and restart
an old ‘70’s tape recorder that played a comical
tune, which undercutting the serious tone.
Audience members were situated as Witness Visitors in the room. Prior to the performance they were asked to document the performers actions with their phone cameras, thus granting them agency to frame their particular view and implicating them in the ritual.
Audience members were situated as Witness Visitors in the room. Prior to the performance they were asked to document the performers actions with their phone cameras, thus granting them agency to frame their particular view and implicating them in the ritual.
The hospital was founded in the late 1800’s by Dr. McCall; one of the first women physicians to be registered. In keeping with her vision, only women were employed in the hospital. The building was even designed by architect Gertrude Leverkus. It served the community for 100 years and was closed in 1981. In 1988, it was occupied and turned into a number of artists studios. In June 2013, after maintaining the building and serving the community for 25 years, the artists were evicted and the building was renovating into high end apartments.