No Images, a performance in the dark :: April 6, 2010; 7:00 - 8:00 pm :: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, ON.

Developed by curators Pablo de Ocampo, Jacob Korczynski and Christof Migone, No Images features the work of Ryan Driver, Annie MacDonell, Alexis O’Hara & Mary Margaret O’Hara and Alex Snukal. Imagine a pitch-black space. Immersed in absolute darkness, you cannot see your own hand, you have no idea of the size of the space that you are in, and your sense of time is completely lost. One’s typical dependence upon an encounter anchored by eyesight is replaced by an amorphous and immersive environment. This presentation strategy is not only ideally suited for sound art, it is also a radical engagement of the senses by way of complete deprivation of the visual.

This concept was initiated by Marvin Green and John Oswald in 1976 and has had many iterations in cities across the world since. This is the first Toronto presentation of this unique performance experience in many years. The audience is led into the space by ushers with flashlights before the darkness descends. Not recommended for claustrophobes.

Ryan Driver is a Toronto-based musician who plays, writes and sings music in spirals and swirls through the void of everythingness. Quiet absurdity, free improvisation, psychedelic reinterpretation of jazz ballads, and performance as a soloist and in a multitude of peculiar ensembles, using a variety of instruments and aesthetics have long been his main foci. He is a prominent figure in the catalogue of the Rat-Drifting record label.

Annie MacDonell is a Toronto-based artist working with film, photography,collage and installation. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at The Khyber ICA and Gallery TPW, and participation in group shows such as “Dans la nuit, des images” at the Grand Palais, in Paris, “Modestly Spectacular” at Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art, and “Signals in the Dark” at the Blackwood Gallery.

Alexis O’Hara is an interdisciplinary artist based in Montréal. Her practice exploits allegories of the human voice via electronic improvisation, video and installation. Her eclectic performances have been presented in a variety of contexts in Slovenia, Austria, Mexico, Germany, Spain, the UK, Ireland, France, Belgium, Canada and the USA. She has shared the stage with such diverse artists as Diamanda Galàs, Ursula Rucker, Henri Chopin and TV on the Radio. SQUEEEEQUE, her sound installation, is set to tour Germany and France in early 2010.

Undisciplinary artist, Mary Margaret O’Hara is a graduate of The Ontario College of Art and Design who typecast herself with her 1988 album Miss America. All over the creative map, if there is such a map, she loves drawing, painting, her original calligraphy, free improv, hosting her brother’s events, making people laugh and cry, acting in and composing for theatre and film, doing wordless backup for singers and musicians, making noises on the fly, off the cuff, and out of the ballpark, composing for film and being with her brothers and sisters. You know who you are.

Alex Snukal is an artist and musician who lives and works in Toronto. Snukal performs regularly as part of Awesome, Animal Monster, and New Feelings. Recent projects have included Souvenir Pressed Pennies (an installation for No Melatonin during Nuit Blanche), Symphonic Poem for 100 Delay Pedals (as part of Toronto Free Broadcasting), and Me and Julio down by Diter’s Dung Hole (an edition for Nothing Else Press).

For more information or to purchase tickets visit: http://www.imagesfestival.com