Nomadic Studio had a ton of workshops and presentations, and none were more physically demanding than andrewandandrea’s “the Art of (Foot) Hockey”. Brought to our exhibit by our comrade in common, Keith Brown, this presentation by the portmanteau’ed pair of Canadians Andrew Lochhead and Andrea Slavik was a left-field treatise on social and artistic interactions through the lens of…well, foot hockey. ‘Foot Hockey’, or ‘Sockey’ as it was introduced to us, is a mix of handball, soccer, and hockey, and is played in socks.
Getting a bunch of art-types to head on down to the handball court at the Ray Meyer Fitness Center (which now counts as a satellite studio as far as I’m concerned), and kick around a tennis ball for an hour was both strenuous and a great change of pace from the standard art-education talks I’ve experienced. The socks-only rule made the game extra slippy, and probably torched my ankle, but it was a blast. Not really sure I’ve seen a presentation like it, before or since.
– Faiz Razi, Curator, Nomadic Studio
For the Nomadic Studio exhibition Andrea Slavik and I were asked to create a piece based on the theme of the artist’s studio.
We chose to reflect on our times working at the Windsor Feminist Theatre, where our black-box rehearsal studio space became an impromptu late night venue for games of ‘foot hockey’ and extended revelry. These games which involved a number of programmers, artists and arts administrators from a variety of galleries, artist-run centres, bolstered our creative community’s ties and led to the creation of new projects, organizational (and romantic!) partnerships.
The work explores often undervalued notions of play as central to the creative process and reveals and revels in the idea of an artist’s studio as a site of merry-making, whimsy, and fun, whilst simultaeneously challenging the mythology of these places as a site of solitary, and individual genius.