A conversation with MascallDance Collaborator Alan Storey
This week at David Lam Park and Malkin Bowl, Vancouver choreographer Justine Chambers leads a MascallDance unit of choreographic research with collaborating dancers Chris Wright, Ralph Escamillan, Benjamin Kamino, Bynh Ho and Nick Benz.
Justine Chambers and ensemble, MascallDance / David Lam Park Lurch (working title) Photo: Andy Catsirelis
They're investigating a sculpture created by BC sculptor Alan Storey.
The tall double ladder structure is part of a sculptural Triptych designed by Alan in 2010 in collaboration with Jennifer Mascall as a theatrical installation.
Benjamin Kamino, Ralph Escamillan, Chris Wright Photo: Andy Catsielis
Alan works locally and internationally from Vancouver. He has a 40-year history of site-specific Public Art making and is best known for the massive ‘Pendulum’ installation that swings perpetually through the HSCB Atrium on Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver, its' movement activated by the movement of air through the buildings air circulation system.
Dancer Benjamin Kamino at the top of Storey’s sculpture, during choreographic research at David Lam Park. Photo: Andy Catsirelis
S What’s your perspective on the exploration of the triptych you created for The White Spider (a 2010 Mascall work) as individual works?
Ralph Escamillan at the apex. MascallDance, 2020 Photo: Andy Catsielis
A They were each built for different chapters of The White Spider, and it’s fine for them to be independent. Of the three, the drawing machine installation is closest to what I do in my own practice - I’ve installed nine or ten of them over the past decade.
Eowynn Enquist in The Politics of Meaning, by Jennifer Mascall, with the writing machine created by Alan Storey, in an exhibition titled The Outliner (2016) Photos: Chris Randle
S Can you talk about creating the sculpture affectionately known as Lurch, which is the focus of the new project?
A Sure - I started with images of climbing, and height. I wanted to have a vertically hanging rope, which strangely, has never been used that way. I wanted the dancers to climb, so ladders up in the air were a natural step, and while there were practical necessities structurally, it also needed to be precarious.
Alan Storey’s sculpture
Photo: Susan McKenzie
I wanted to link two ladders together for more stability, also suddenly changing in a precarious but controlled way - and for one to lean out, so that the rope could dangle. The platform necessitated a lot of weight, so I made a structure with a cable to tie it back. Initially, I think I had a solid bar linking the two pieces at the top but the idea evolved into a truss with the potential to walk across. The whole project kept changing, adapting all the time, and developed out of the playfulness of the dancers spending time on it.
S “Lurch” was recently stored at the Roundhouse, and had to be taken to David Lam park from there. Jennifer said “the only thing I can think of that it might be like is taking your pet dinosaur for a long walk.”
A I can imagine! Until close to opening, we were lugging weights to fill a big 2x10 box I’d made for a safe - heavy enough - base. We’d load 500 lb sandbags, old dead batteries, and so on - upstairs, downstairs, etc! I didn’t like the box and none of us liked lugging all that weight, so finally I made tanks on the bottom that held water we could fill and discard before moving the structure again. Everything continued changing right up to the show - shortly before which, Jennifer asked for plexiglass structures attached to the end of the tanks, with goldfish in them… too late!
S How did you get it safe enough for dancers?
A LURCH was very collaborative design; for the dancers certain things weren’t comfortable - we adapted those - and we had to strengthen it a bit structurally.
It’s critical that it is all put together correctly, as it’s potentially quite a dangerous thing and the operators are responsible for a major structural element, unhooking that one carabiner so it comes down to the ground - then back up up and crucially, rehooked. That's why I came in and did that training during the first unit of the current production’s research (with Ame Henderson, 2019), to be sure that the performers were thoroughly aware and able to take this on without fail.
S What’s happening in your work life these days?
A Recently I’ve produced less of my own work. Public Art is cumbersome and a financial challenge, whereas I can earn, fabricating the public art of other people, so I’ve been through a period of primarily doing that.
At the moment. I’m making a piece of commissioned public art in Steveston that will be installed in a couple of weeks. I’ve been pre-occupied in recent months with moving my studio again, from New Westminster (where my building got sold) to Richmond, which is closer, cheaper and a much nicer space. It was incredible good luck - I was looking for space and not finding in it when I fell into conversation with a boatbuilder on a local dock that led me to the new space!
I’ve been building a mezzanine and office which led to a high ceiling room with fantastic light and a big white gallery wall! It’s going to eventually become a small gallery space - a first for me. I’m diving into a whole bunch new work with that in mind.
S We’ll be there at your gallery opening! Til then…
More about Alan Storey:
Alan’s practice also includes gallery installations of site responsive, interactive works including a series of circumstantial drawing machines. Among Alan’s other noted projects are ‘Urban Language’, in Montreal; ‘Slowswing with Panel Discussion’ in Olympia, Washington; and ‘Public Service/Private Steps’ outside the Environment Canada Building in Vancouver. As a set designer, Alan has worked with Ballet BC; MascallDance; SFU with Henry Daniel’s ‘Imprint’ with Turning Point Ensemble; and with Simone Orlando and Move the Company on the production of Luft/Firebird. Among the awards he has received are the Americans for the Arts ‘2006 Year in Review’ for ‘Compass’ at the Belleview City Hall in Washington State, and ‘Public Artist of the Year’ in the 2009 Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Awards.
Cover portrait of Alan Storey
Courtesy of Yukiko Onley