Graduating Project of MFA, Ian McFarlane
September 8th, 2018
Created in partial fulfillment of a Masters in Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University
Final Instalment of Weather Patterns: A Performance Series
Weather Patterns is a series of public workshops and performances that explores the potential of material performance and inquires into the collaborative capacity of the weather. How can the air move us? How does the rain express itself? What is the music of the wind?
Weather Pattern #6: The Funeral Pageant was an outdoor, public procession that considered community and ecology as collaborators while contemplating themes of mortality and transformation. Taking place over a distance of 10.5 kilometres across Vancouver and Burnaby, the project was a carnivalesque procession that included large-scale puppets, kites, aeolian harps, and lanterns. Travelling through residential, industrial and forested areas, the procession involved a series of participatory events, all based around the journey of a ten foot tall puppet of a human figure as it walked into night. The procession ended in the dark of night with the puppet, whose body was disintegrating from the rain, being destroyed in a feast of noise, red wine and revelry.