WILLIAM A. DAVISON

CURRICULUM VITAE - PERFORMANCE ART

779 Ossington Ave., Apt#2, Toronto, ON, M6G 3T8, Canada
Ph: 416-588-7539, E-mail: davison(at)recordism(dot)com

 

 

SOLO PERFORMANCES

2011

• "Slow Bells", New Harbours series, Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Stactor Herky Jerky", F.T.P.R.I., Toronto, ON (as M.Stactor)

2010

• "Japanese Ghosts", Studio 303, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "DU(BU)ET", Performance Night 4.5 event, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2009

• Untitled, Dictaphonia Fest, Gainesville, FL (as M.Stactor)
• Untitled, 355 Noise #2 event, Gainesville, FL (as M.Stactor)
• Untitled, 7-24 Video, Toronto, ON (as M.Stactor)
• Untitled, Clubbb Dreaddd, Toronto, ON (as M.Stactor)

2008

• "Dialogue: Exhumation", Somewhere There, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• Untitled, Null Space, Toronto, ON (as M.Stactor)

2007

• "Dots", Queen West Art Crawl, Trinity Bellwoods Park, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "The Five-Minute Circuit Shuffle (for R.E.)", Open Letter magazine launch (special Ray Ellenwood edition), Supermarket, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2006

• "Alien Bell Hat Ritual No. 1", Humanitas Festival, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2005

• "The Spectre Of Black Vegetables", New Works Studio, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Dave Charles Sample Spots 7 1/2 I.P.S.", Psycho-Physical Noise Mini-Festival, New Works Studio, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2004

• "Epiphenomenal Suitcase", Coup de Coeur event, The Music Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 16, Xpace", 7a11d Festival of Performance Art, Xpace Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Epiphenomenal Suitcase", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 15, High Park", High Park, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 14, Dovehouse (Apparition)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 12, Dovehouse (Anti-Mask)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2003

• "No. 11, Dovehouse (Black Spots)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 10, Dovehouse (Combat)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 9, Dovehouse (Results Inconclusive)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 8, Dovehouse (Bird Energy)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 7, Dovehouse (Family Funtime)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 6, Dovehouse (Little Strangers)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 5, Dovehouse (Mirror Energy)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 4, Dovehouse (Stag Energy)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 3, Dovehouse (The Red Yarn)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2001

• "Tiny Gifts", Reciprocity/Reciprocité performance art exchange, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Typewriter Variation No. 2", Reciprocity/Reciprocité performance art exchange, Elle Corazon, Montreal, Que. (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "No. 1, Anti-Corps", Sex and Pain, Gallerie Anti-Corps, Montreal, Que. (as Songs of the New Erotics)

2000

• "My Nose, Tzara’s Face", The Box series, Labyrinth, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1999

• "Small Composition Inside A Box", Anarchist Free Space, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1998

• "A Poetry Found In The Dark Edges Of Science", Samhain In Wasteland event, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Kook Dance At X Hundred Feet", 7a11d Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Baron Brainscapes" intervention, Dwellers At The Threshold event, Power Plant, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Windbag", Songscapes event, The Music Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "One Hundred Maggots", Extreme Noise event, Weave Club, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1997

• "Shadows and Subterfuge", University of Guelph, Guelph, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "The Anti-Child of Recordist Performance and a Lighted Cavern", 7a11d Festival of Performance Art, Symptom Hall, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Nonsense Companions", Forest City Gallery, London, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "15-Minute Ideospheric Construction", Pssst...Live Art For An Unlit Place event, Made In Canada Artist's Collective, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Baron Brainscapes" intervention, Temporary Disturbances, Nora Vaughn Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Speech of the Eternal Killer", Wasteland Cathedral event, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1996

• "Recordist Manifesto In Memory Of The Engines", The Fight for the Light experimental music event, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Merzkopf", Toronto Recordist Performer/filmmaker W.A.Davison exhibition, Altering Fields ‘96/Cinecycle, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Merzkopf", Meditation, H.M.A., Hamilton, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Merzkopf", Thought Ambulance event, Parameter, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Nonsense Companions", Robot Leader, Nora Vaughn Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Improvisation For Crawlspace", Cinecycle, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1993

• "The Misery Bag: Ergotic Concert No. 1", Freedom In A Vacuum, The Music Gallery, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Play For A Sealed Room", Surgical Transmissions, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

 

GROUP PERFORMANCES

2010

• "The Whistling Corpse", Inside Voices event, 1059 Bathurst, Toronto, ON (collaboration with Robert Dayton)

2006

• Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, U.S.A. (W.A.Davison/S.Higgins collaboration with Nurse With Wound)

2004

• "No. 13, Dovehouse (Hands)", Dovercourt House, Toronto, ON (collaboration with S.Higgins as Songs of the New Erotics)

2003

• Traveling Bureau, various locations, London, Leeds, and Halifax, UK (collaboration with S. Higgins as members of I.B.R.I.)

2002

• "The Lovers" intervention, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON (collaboration with S.Higgins as Songs of the New Erotics with assistance from B.Hausner, R.Ellenwood, S.MacKay)
• Traveling Bureau, various locations including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, N.Y., USA (collaboration with S. Higgins as members of I.B.R.I.)
• Traveling Bureau, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON (collaboration with S. Higgins as members of I.B.R.I.)
• Traveling Bureau, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON (collaboration with S. Higgins as members of I.B.R.I.)
• "No. 2, Art System", 7a11d - 4th International Festival of Performance Art, Art System, Toronto, ON (Songs of the New Erotics with Recipro collective including Paul Couillard, Shannon Cochrane, Tagny Duff, Margaret Dragu, Kirsten Forkert, Josée Tremblay, Eric Letourneau, and Victoria Stanton)

2000

• "T.V.I. Intervention", 7a11d - 3rd International Festival of Performance Art, YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto, ON (as member of Torpor Vigil Industries)
• "T.V.I. Reality Check", 7a11d - 3rd International Festival of Performance Art, various locations (mobile), Toronto, ON (as member of Torpor Vigil Industries)

1999

• "Max 4S-10C" intervention, Eaton Centre, Toronto, ON (as member of Torpor Vigil Industries)
• "Executive Machinery", Elektra Festival, Usine C, Montreal, Que. (as member of Puppet Government)
• "Black Flag" intervention, Old City Hall, Toronto, ON (as member of Cult of Po-Po)
• "Appreciating the Chakras", Time Time Time performance series, Toronto, ON (collaboration with Linda Montano and others)

1998

• "Bureau/Office", Art Action 1958 - 1998, Le Lieu, Quebec City, Que. (as member of Puppet Government)

1997

• Rencontre Internationale D’Art Performance Et Multimedia, Le Lieu - Centre en Art Actuel, Quebec City, Que. (collaboration with BMZ)
• "Music For Opposite Oxygen", The First Recordist Soiree event, I.B.R.I., Toronto, ON (collaboration with S.Higgins as Songs of the New Erotics)
• "Poesie Basse Technologie et Grandes Dents", Soiree de Musique Fraiche event, Complexe Meduse, Quebec City, Que. (collaboration with Marc LeMyre)

1996

• "Self-Alienation", Rencontre Performance event, Cinecycle, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics, collaboration with Hungarian artist BMZ and S.Higgins)

1994

• Various performances as part of Violence of the Imagination International Festival of Live Art, Brighton, UK (as member of Puppet Government and Phycus, with Monty Cantsin and Brian Damage)
• "Illegal Alien", Nosepaint, London, UK (as member of Puppet Government with Monty Cantsin and Brian Damage)

1992

• "Amen Speaks", Zero Work Jubilee, The Monastery, Toronto, ON (collaboration with Istvan Kantor and Scott MacKay)

 

EXHIBITIONS

2012

• Performance Night #6, Dowling House, Nakano, Tokyo, Japan

 

CURATORIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PROJECTS

2005

• irr.app.(Ext.)/Songs of the New Erotics concert, New Works Studio, Toronto, ON (co-organized with S.Higgins)

2000

• StrangeWays - Currents of the Fantastic in Contemporary Performance, 7a11d - 3rd International Festival of Performance Art, Toronto, ON (co-curated with S.Higgins, included Sweden’s SU-EN Butoh Co., Fluxus composer/artist Ben Patterson, and others) (also member of the 7a*11d steering committee)

1999

• "I.B.R.I. Open Meeting", Anarchist Free Space, Toronto, On. (co-curated with S.Higgins)

1997

• First Recordist Soiree, I.B.R.I., Toronto, ON (co-curated with S.Higgins, various artists and artforms)

1994

• International Bureau of Recordist Investigation, Toronto, ON (multi-disciplinary art organization, 1994 - 2004)

 

PUBLISHED WORK

2002

• "Tiny Gifts", Rampike magazine, Vol. 13, No. 1

1998

• "A Message From The Bureau", Awake! The Cult of PO-PO, 1998 issue

 

REVIEWS AND ARTICLES

2007

• Kerry W. Zentner, "The Recordists", Mondo, June 18-25, 2007 issue (interview in online publication)

2004

• "7a*11d International Performance Art Festival", deFile Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 2, Fall 2004 (advertisement)

2002

• Scott MacKay, "The Lovers", Geist magazine, Vol. 11, No. 47, Winter 2002 issue
• Rebecca Caldwell, "Under the Sheets and in the Flesh", Globe and Mail, Sept. 21, 2002
• Ray Ellenwood, "Canada's Forgotten Surrealists", Artfocus magazine, Vol. 10, No. 1, issue #74

2001

• Bruce Barber, "Three Modes In Canadian Performance", Art Action 1958 - 1998, (Richard Martel -editor) Editions Intervention, Que., 2001
• Steve Venright, "Reality Check", Rampike magazine, Vol. 12, No. 1

2000

• Maxx Rush, "Recordism: An Interview with William A. Davison", Melting Clock - Internet Journal of Surrealism, Oct. 2000 issue (interview in WWW publication)

1998

• "Threshold At Power Plant", Flash Art (USA), Vol. 31, No. 200, May - June 1998
• Kevin Paisley, "Bill Satan In 23 Questions", Brain Scan, No.2, Feb. 1998 (interview)
• Cindy McGlynn, "Art Hurts Sometimes", Eye Weekly, April 12 (?), 1998

1997

• Alexandre Vigneault, "Sons De Nuits D"Automne", Voir weekly, Vol. 6 No.47, Quebec City, Que.
• Remy Charest, "Un Zeste De Guitare, Avec Ca?", Le Devoir, Nov. 21/97 issue, Quebec City, Que.
• Sylvain Marcotte, "Confusions De Cristal", Impact Campus, Nov. 25/97 issue, Quebec City, Que.
• Richard Boisvert, "De Chaudes Soirees De Musique Fraiche", Le Soleil, Nov. 20/97 issue, Quebec City, Que.

 

LECTURES, READINGS, PRESENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

2008

• "The Works of Songs of the New Erotics", Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium 2008, Canadian Electroacoustic Community/Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto/New Adventures in Sound Art, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (artist talk)

2007

• Untitled, Poets In Their Natural Habitat event (as part of Scream In High Park), Toronto, ON (reading/performance/sound installation)

2005

• "Recordism", presented in the course "Modernist Movements: Dada/Surrealism in Europe and North America" (instructor: Prof. Ray Ellenwood), York University, Toronto, ON (artist's talk/presentation, co-presented with S.Higgins)
• "Songs of the New Erotics/Sound In Performance", presented in Louise Liliefeldt's performance art class, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON (artist's talk and workshop)

1999

• "I.B.R.I. Open Meeting", presented at Anarchist Free School, Toronto, ON (workshop and lecture series co-presented with S.Higgins, weekly from Mar. 1999 to May 2000)

 

RADIO AND TV APPEARANCES

2006

• interview, Arts In Review, KALX Radio, Berkeley, California (with Sherri Higgins)

2005

• interview, A Missing Sense, CKLN Radio, Toronto, ON (with Matt Waldron, Sherri Higgins)

1999

• interview, Art On Air, CKLN Radio, Toronto, ON

1998

• interview, Bravo TV, Toronto, ON
• interview, About Town, CIUT Radio, Toronto, ON
• interview, Sex City, CIUT Radio, Toronto, ON

1996

• "Epiphenomenal Suitcase" performance, Temporary Nice Place, CIUT Radio, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

1994

• feature, Late Night Atrocity Exhibition, CKUT Radio, Montreal, Que.
• feature, The Pier, BBC TV, Brighton, UK

1993

• "The Misery Bag: Ergotic Concert No. 1" performance, Radio Music Gallery, CKLN Radio, Toronto, ON (as Songs of the New Erotics)

 

GRANTS AND AWARDS

2005

• project grant, Integrated Arts program, Ontario Arts Council

2003

• project grant, Inter-Arts Program: Creation Grants for Artists, Canada Council

2000

• project grant, Inter-Arts Program: Creation Grants for Artists, Canada Council

1995

• project grant, Grants To Composers program, Toronto Arts Council

 

EDUCATION

• Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Experimental and Electronic Music Composition, 1988 - 1989
• Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS, B.F.A. Program, 1987 - 1989,1982 - 1983
• Atlantic Filmmaker's Co-Op, Halifax, NS, Small-Gauge Film Production, 1986

 

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