(Victoria)
Casual Living is an interactive performance installation created as homage to the nurturing spirit of an artist run centre in Victoria, BC called The Ministry of Casual Living (MoCL).
The MoCL has a variety of galleries and affordable studios that offer people interested in art an opportunity to embark on creative explorations and show their work in gallery settings. The three original Casual Living facilitators: Zayn Wiwchar, Harold Hejazi, and Sundry NoName, conceived this project while coincidently sharing neighbouring studios at the MoCL facility on 819 Fort St. There, they collaborated on a variety of improvised performances that inspired them to take their emancipatory studio experience to other communities. They confront audiences with an alternate view of hip hop that is rooted in doing rather than consuming, evoking the origins of hip hop culture as a community building force.
This project Casual Living is half workshop, half performance act. It is best understood as an interactive hip hop installation.
Imagine a space with beat machines connected to effects pedals and microphones, connected to more vocal effects pedals, everything that you would need to engage in creating contemporary hip hop sounds. The three facilitators will be doing short demos, creating live instrumental music while also employing ways to get willing participants to give it a try and helping them to do so.
By stimulating involvement, participation and reaction to music, they seek to activate the joys of exploring hip hop, the strength of experiencing something new and the empowerment of realising your own creative potential.
Find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mocasualliving/