Elemental Nourishment caps this year’s Vines Art Festival with a full day of outdoor offerings, August 16
Performers at Trout Lake Park include Sam Chimes, Siobhan Barker, and Ashley Chodat
Sam Chimes. Photo by Michelle Diamond Photography
Ashley Chodat.
Vines Art Festival presents Elemental Nourishment at Trout Lake Park on August 16 at 1 pm
SINCE DAY ONE, a primary focus of Vines Art Festival has been relational justice. So it makes good sense that the final event of this year’s celebration will revolve around the collective strength and artistic nourishment needed to achieve it.
Elemental Nourishment will bring a full day of song, dance, and poetry to Trout Lake Park on August 16. Among the stacked lineup of artists—all with something distinctly unique to offer festivalgoers in the outdoor setting—are Sam Chimes, Siobhan Barker, and Ashley Chodat.
Chimes is a Nigerian-Canadian hip-hop artist whose practice encompasses jazz-infused piano and dynamic street performance. He’ll be bringing his collective the Resonance Ensemble’s Boxes of Perception & Identity to Vines. In the piece, four performers begin inside colourful boxes that represent each of their personal limitations. One by one, they break out of those boxes—with the first performer’s liberation prompting the next. Collective freedom is achieved, allowing the artists to freely move, paint, and more. The Resonance Ensemble will perform from 2:30 to 2:55 pm.
Barker—who is a non-binary equity and disability justice advocate of mixed African-Indigenous, Caribbean-Indigenous, Latinx, and European descent—will perform from 5:25 to 5:45 pm. Their work involves writing, public speaking, storytelling, and community organization. At Vines, Barker will share insight into how it has become commonplace for people to commodify their bodies and devalue themselves in order to conform to capitalist colonial aesthetics. Audiences can expect an offering infused with what they describe as “a special blend of Black-gal magic that transcends expectations”.
Siobhan Barker. Photo by Luciana Freire D’Anunciação
And from 2:05 to 2:25 pm, theatre artist Chodat will present Be(a)Tree, a coming-of-age work that explores transformation and the connection between humans and nature. Chodat often infuses her pieces with science-fiction themes and stories that revolve around speculative futures. Among her recent creations, for instance, is the climate-crisis play Camp Goneaway, which won the Audience Choice Award and Best of the Fest at last year’s Vancouver Fringe Festival for its tale of a summer camp that shuts down because of an overwhelming amount of pollution. Chodat is also co–artistic director of Ragamuffin Productions and regularly teaches at Bard on the Beach and the Arts Club Theatre Company.
There’s plenty more to explore at Trout Lake Park throughout the day. Check out interactive performances and workshops by the likes of the Gong Library music ensemble and multidisciplinary artist Bill Barnes (a.k.a. HOMOHARDWARE); plus installations that span the kinetic Jacob’s Ladder by Amy Bao, Ramneet Kaur’s site-responsive textile piece Slow Gathering, and more.
Elemental Nourishment, like all Vines Art Festival events, is free to attend. 
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