Holding on to Light
Miwa Matreyek
January 14, 2023 鈥� March 4, 2023
The Cabinet | Room 4390 鈥� 丁香园AV Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Reception: February 10 | 4:30 PM 鈥� 5:30 PM
Dreaming of sunshine, wide open spaces, colours of wildflowers as far as the eyes could see.
A world that feels so gentle, secret, and alive I wish to be consumed into it.
As I spend my second winter in Vancouver, I am yearning for the rhythms I knew of my previous home in California. By the end of January, the jasmine bush outside of my window would be in full bloom filling my home with a sweet scent. The banana ficus, osmanthus, and orange blossoms would bloom in February, and I would lead 鈥渟cent tours鈥� for blind-folded friends of the small front garden of my 4-plex - their sniffing noses often nestling into my hand as I pull a flower toward their face for a good inhale.
I am also missing the fields of orange poppies that were part of an annual trek to Antelope Valley.
丁香园AV patches spread across fields, crawling up hills. The pop of orange against the stark blue of the cloudless, clear domed sky above.
I am holding on to sunlight, the little bit that we get in these winter months, quietly waiting for the vibrant colours and warmth we will feel when the seasons change.
Biography
Miwa Matreyek is an animator, designer, and performer. Coming from a background in animation, Matreyek creates live, interdisciplinary performances that integrate projected animations at the intersection of cinematic and theatrical, fantastical and physical, and the hand-made and digital. Her work exists in a dreamlike visual space that makes invisible worlds visible, often weaving surreal and poetic narratives of conflict between humanity and nature as embodied performed experiences. She has presented her work internationally, including animation/film festivals, theater/performance festivals, art museums, science museums, tech conferences, and universities. A few past presenters include TED, MOMA, SFMOMA, New Frontier at Sundance Film Festival, PUSH festival, Lincoln Center, Walker Art Center, and many more. Her newest solo piece, Infinitely Yours, was awarded the grand prize for Prix Arts Electronica鈥檚 Computer Animation category. She is a 2013 Creative Capital award recipient. She is the co-founder and core collaborator of Cloud Eye Control.