Overview
Spanning the vast gallery of the Harbourfront Centre Theatre, The Water Series is a three-part immersive installation, inviting visitors on an evocative journey through the intricate relationship between water, grief and resilience.
With sound, moving image and architecture, filmmaker and artist Naomi Jaye takes you on an emotional and unconventional journey through her experiences inside an MRI machine and at a local pool in the years between her mother’s death from breast cancer and her becoming a mother.
Co-produced by Harbourfront Centre and Tremendous Productions Inc.
Generously Supported By: Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, MBS Equipment Co, and Motion Media Studio York University
Official Partner of The Princess Margaret UHN.
Additional Events at Harbourfront Centre
Artist Talk with Naomi Jaye and Molly Johnson
Join an insightful conversation with The Water Series creator Naomi Jaye and choreographer and dancer Molly Johnson. It will be an intimate platform for discussion and audience engagement.
Date: Saturday October 14, 2023
Time: 2–3 pm
Location: Harbourfront Centre Theatre Lobby, 231 Queens Quay W.
Admission: Limited to 30 participants. Free with online registration.
Written in Water: Poetry & Movement Workshop
Water, water, everywhere; and not a drop to think.
In this writing workshop, we take the qualities of water into our own writing practices. As water is mutable, our forms will run the spectrum from trickle to flood. As water is unitary, our words will reveal the continuity between disparate things in the motion of an oceanic consciousness. As water is a vessel for grief and transformation, our poetic language will arrive from the rest of life in its emotive totality.
We will take inspiration from: Naomi Jaye’s The Water Series; poets Samuel Coleridge, Nicole Brossard, and Dionne Brand, among others; and somatic practices of qigong and collective reading. The bulk of our workshop will be the process of gathering materials, and we will conclude with composition and performance. No prior writing experience is necessary — anyone is welcome to register.
Date: Sunday, October 15th
Time: 2–5 pm
Location: Harbourfront Centre, Main Loft, 235 Queens Quay W.
Admission: Limited to 15 participants. Free with online registration.
Fold
The installation becomes interactive as viewers are asked to create an origami boat with a message inside about their experiences with grief and place them in the lockers that make up the walls of POOL.
Date: Saturday October 14 to Sunday October 22
Time: During exhibition hours
Location: Harbourfront Centre Theatre Shared Lobby, 231 Queens Quay W.
Admission: Free, registration not required.
About Naomi Jaye
Filmmaker Naomi Jaye has a flair for cinematic scale, unconventional storytelling and striking visual execution. She has recently expanded her screen-based practice to include large-scale video installation and immersive cinema. Recent works include Miriam’s World, a microcosm of a public library and MRI, an immersive exploration of the effects of medical imaging on the female body. Her background strongly influences her new installation practice in theatre design. Jaye continues investigating the installation architecture at Queens University, where she is completing a PhD. She is a lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Credits
Artist Naomi Jaye Creative Producer Petek Berksoy Sound Design and Composition Erik Arnesen Producer Kurtis Leon Baker Cinematographer David Nguyen Editor Emmanuel Albano Choreographer/Dancer Molly Johnson Production Designer for MRI Lorenzo Savoini POOL Women Maria Wicinski; Wanjiku Wamugo; Maxine Stirling Dawe; Ruth Cortez; Sahra Cohen; Molly Johnson SAIL Boats by 16 Tonnes, Shaund Majid
Access Info
Venue is wheelchair accessible.
An accompanying audio track by the artist, Naomi Jaye, will be available to stream on site and will be accessible through visitors’ personal smartphones.
A transcript of Naomi Jaye’s accompanying audio track will be available in print and will also be accessible on Tremendous Productions website through a QR code on site.
Dates & Times
October 14
10am – 6pm
2pm – Artist Talk
October 15
10am – 6pm
2pm – Movement Workshop
October 18
4pm – 8pm
October 19
4pm – 8pm
October 20
4pm – 8pm
October 21
10am – 6pm
October 22
10am – 6pm