Sugar Cube Gallery

Interpretation of Houdini’s Chinese Water Torture Trick

Residency - January/February, 2011
Sugar Cube Gallery, 17th Avenue SW, YYC

In the winter of 2011 Drunken Paw was invited by the Sugar Cube curatorial trio, Lisa Brawn, Jane Grace and Angela Inglis, to exhibit for the inaugural exhibition of the Sugar Cube Gallery on 17th Avenue SW in Calgary Alberta. The Sugar Cube Gallery was aptly named as it was a tiny window gallery, no larger than 5 x 5 feet squared. Drunken Paw did not hesitate to accept and suggested instead, a performative residency in which we ourselves, and our collaborative process would be on display. It would be our first major residency.

It was a crazy situation to take on that some might think impossible… three artists producing a large triptych in a very confined window space in the midst of a harsh Canadian winter. Drunken Paw had never been so exposed. Faces, people, familiar and not, gathered around the street facing window, drawn to the spectacle, curious as to what and why and how.

Back to back, and all over each other, the group maintained our usual process, each working one panel and rotating when it felt like an appropriate time to do so. Adding to the claustrophobic sense of space, filmmaker Michal Lavi joined the mix in order to film the madness of our exploit for her documentary, Sidewalk Citizen. Friends stopped by with tea from nearby Cafe Beano, which was promptly warmed up with a splash of Southern Comfort. There was plenty of music, laughter and snow. Imagine being inside a clown car before the clowns spill out. This was a rare glimpse into that world.

The final work produced, Houdini Rising in Snow-Globe #37, is currently in the collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Piece produced

Houdini Rising in Snow-Globe #37 - triptych, 50” x 114” 
Purchased by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (art collection)