The Project
Willow is an experimental interdisciplinary performance project. The binding concept and method of Willow is the weaving of different art forms into a single cohesive work using techniques such as graphic scoring across artistic mediums, collective improvisation and indeterminacy. Willow is not bound by a fixed narrative. Instead, each instance of its performance is generated by its cast, audience, and environment; it functions as an exploration of human interaction, reaction, and improvisation
While the project was initially conceived and performed as a collaboration between contemporary dancers and musicians, the project has been expanded to include other artistic mediums in fixed and variable forms; poetry and creative writing, visual art and design, as well as theatre and the dramatic arts. The nature of the project also means that, certain structural elements notwithstanding, no two presentations of the piece occur in the same way, incorporating a rotating crew of co-performers, audience members and/or collaborators in an interactive performance space.
Willow seeks to examine personal growth and adaptiveness amidst different forms adversity. Inspiration for the project was drawn from the titular plant itself and its place in stories and mythologies across the world. The willow tree is one of the oldest to be used by humans, with tough wood for the fashioning of tools and steadfast structures and heavy sap containing salicylic acid, a precursor to modern aspirin. It is also a prominent figure in folklore, appearing in legends both modern and ancient. It has been associated with rituals of death, rebirth, and renewable, often viewed as a connection to ones ancestors or the afterlife, or places beyond the realm of common experience. We seek to incorporate these aspects as well of those of the species itself, being highly driven and tenacious to life, adaptive, creative within and protective of their environment.
While the project was initially conceived and performed as a collaboration between contemporary dancers and musicians, the project has been expanded to include other artistic mediums in fixed and variable forms; poetry and creative writing, visual art and design, as well as theatre and the dramatic arts. The nature of the project also means that, certain structural elements notwithstanding, no two presentations of the piece occur in the same way, incorporating a rotating crew of co-performers, audience members and/or collaborators in an interactive performance space.
Willow seeks to examine personal growth and adaptiveness amidst different forms adversity. Inspiration for the project was drawn from the titular plant itself and its place in stories and mythologies across the world. The willow tree is one of the oldest to be used by humans, with tough wood for the fashioning of tools and steadfast structures and heavy sap containing salicylic acid, a precursor to modern aspirin. It is also a prominent figure in folklore, appearing in legends both modern and ancient. It has been associated with rituals of death, rebirth, and renewable, often viewed as a connection to ones ancestors or the afterlife, or places beyond the realm of common experience. We seek to incorporate these aspects as well of those of the species itself, being highly driven and tenacious to life, adaptive, creative within and protective of their environment.
Creators and Directors
Our group has been working and performing together since the Spring of 2017 with a focus on formulating interdisciplinary language through experimental practice and collaborative improvisation. We aim to present improvisational artistic dialogue across mediums and to curate a cohesive performance exhibition which viscerally engages audience and performer alike.
Angus Gaffney
Photo at 'Tender Teeth' by Catherine McCrae
Angus Gaffney is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, writer and curator based in Montréal, QC. Raised in Toronto, he moved to Montréal in 2014 to pursue an undergraduate degree in Music (BFA) and English Literature at Concordia University. Angus is a determined experimentalist, choosing to bind and juxtapose elements of music and other art forms from different backgrounds into new forms of sound and composition. His current work examines the conceptualization of artistic process as performance, and on breaking the cultural and subcultural barriers between artistic disciplines in the interest of finding new forms of collaboration. He is also a founding member of KALYX Collective, a group dedicated to creating and curating interdisciplinary arts events and providing platforms for artists to network and interact. Angus has been a component of Willow since its inception in the Spring of 2017.
