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Audry Churgin
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GENERATIONAL ECHOES © 2001
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"What is in the best interests of the child ?" generic author
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Form: Theatrical
sound installation, incorporating cast-iron, plastic, glass and telephone
A collaborative creation, the play was previously written and produced by Audrey
Churgin, featuring performances by Shaina Dubé [child, baby], Nellie Brannan [Mother], as well as Inuit Throat Singers, Celina Esigaitok Kalluk and Ainsley Walton.
The song, DOUBLE YOUS, was written and composed by Shaina Dubé, perfomed by Audrey Churgin.
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Artist’s Statement
The moment I began collaborating with my little children,
making art that incorporated their marks, I felt a delicious guilt for the joy of our images. Despite the lurking fear that I was breaking into sacred ground, we
forged a visual bond reflective of our loving relationship. I discovered that we could pair our abilities and each emerge enhanced for having created viable art,
aesthetically richer.
Among the many by-products that result from our collaborative union, I have unleashed a pro-active voice that advocates on behalf of
children generally. In taking on child-art as a contemporary partner, I have tried to move the genre of child-art from the perhipery. I am very aware that
children's issues are lumped undistinguished, generally, within the cause of Feminism, but I feel they are not the same thing and do not require the same study or
treatment.
As a writer, I have partnered an interest in Feminism with my findings about the unique, fleeting authorship that childhood offers its artistic
productions. Within the context of my own professional work, I embrace the under-worked, under-developed, the under-achieved work of the child. I separate the
prefix from its root, because I contend the child's productions are in fact, worked, developed, and achieve. They work toward a different standard, marching to an
aesthetic drummer who beats a different rhythm, which, to be fully appreciated, must not be segregated, but rather raised up on a pedestal and co-exhibited. Paired
with the Feminist discussion about Family Law, its complexity is made tangible through the raw emotions evoked by the collaborative audio productions. My work is
designed to be highly cathartic, reaching points deep within, tapping into the daughter we all have been, the mother we all could be.
Audry Churgin
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About the Artist
Audrey Churgin works in a variety of media. Represented by Galerie
St.Laurent-Hill in Ottawa, she has created an extensive collection of pastel paintings, as well as oil paintings, graphite drawings, and collaborative works
produced with young children. Her current work is a combination of play-writing and audio production. Her latest audio project is included in the Bookmobile
Project, and is now exhibited on-line in the virtual gallery, Artengine. Churgin's work is a sensorial exploration that leads her to deal with peripheral issues of
collaboration, including the psychologically charged content of adult/child collaboration, and the questionable boundaries between collaboration and appropriation.
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