In a growing city such as Toronto, scaffolds are a ubiquitous feature of the urban environment. WEEPING CONCRETE is a site-specific project for a trio of performers across two towering scaffolds; asking us to reflect on the streets as we know them and imagine what they might be.
“Sistering” is a construction term for the act of placing supports on either side of a beam to add stability. In WEEPING CONCRETE, the three performers, including artist Hazel Meyer, animated this makeshift, temporary architecture as it “sistered” one of the concrete bents holding up the Gardiner Expressway. Borrowing from activist aesthetics, athletic tropes, and consumer advertising practices; the performers unfurled banners, engaged objects, and introduced elements of queer joy in an ongoing conversation with one another, and the audience. Through these actions, WEEPING CONCRETE presented a reflection on intimacy, interdependence, and infrastructure.
Performed by Moe Angelos, Leah Klingbyle, and Hazel Meyer.
Commissioned by The Bentway Conservancy.
About the Artist
Hazel Meyer is an artist who works with installation, performance, and text to investigate the relationships between sexuality, feminism, and material culture. Her work recovers the queer aesthetics, politics, and bodies often effaced within histories of infrastructure, athletics, and illness.
Recent activations of her work have taken place at La Ferme du Buisson (FR), Glasgow International Art Biennial (SCT), Dunlop Art Gallery (CA), Progress Festival (CA), Porn Film Festival Berlin (DE), and Contemporary Copenhagen (DK). Hazel presently lives and works on the stolen and unceded territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.