TWO WAYS OF SPREADING LIGHT

"Turning on the Light" was a visual art exhibition cosponsored by the Tom Thompson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound, and the Sexual Assault Centre of Grey and Bruce as an educational vehicle about sexual assault. This community art project featured the work of numerous artists in the region focusing on the subject of sexual assault. The works were based on stories told by "survivors" to the artists. Artists then expressed these stories through various visual media.

Sheatre presented "Two ways of spreading light", a mask and puppet sculptural piece created by Joan Chandler with Nadia Dekking in a "face to face" youth project. Thanks to John Moulton for his welding and metalwork on the piece.

Joan and Nadia began by talking about the real and disturbing experience of sexual assault. This was then expressed using physical movement. These "dances" were distilled into two images: one reflecting the immediate response to the experience and the second encapsulating Nadia's moment of epiphany, when she saw the strength that she had gained and the person she wanted to be after much healing work had been done.

These images were then rendered into masks. The moment of agony was perceived as being immobile, frozen, disassociated and trapped. It seemed appropriate to turn that mask into a puppet chained to a steel weight, being consumed by fire. The second image is presented as a costume piece, a mask with head-dress. The figure is seen in the act of taking flight, soaring to new heights. The body is still not concrete or whole, but the spirit glows, alive and thriving. These two images form one presentation piece.