Soshin Kimura: On Mitate Blurring the line between performing arts and the art of living WORDS BY MIDORI FURUHATA | TOKYO | PERFORMANCE NOV 15, 2022 | ISSUE 8 Soshin Kimura ©KITCHEN MINORU, Hoshinkai ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE On Mitate by Alicia Jungwirth ​ You could say the Japanese tea ceremony is a sophisticated game of hospitality, or esprit, that can be enjoyed via sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. The serendipity of Mitate in a tea ceremony is not just a question of formality—it is a question of making an effort to be creative. Mitate presents an occasion for enjoying yourself alongside companions, or once-in-a-lifetime encounters, in any place and with any person you meet. Regardless of how casual the style is, it is important to be able to entertain and be entertained, and to bring yourself closer to the various utensils, tools, and objects used in the tea ceremony. In doing so, you create space to form all sorts of relationships. According to Soshin Kimura, “If you come to a real tea ceremony, you will see that it is not just performing arts. It’s about shortening the distance between utensils and people.” He is a Japanese Tea Grand Master, but he insists there is no single word in English to describe his profession. The same is true for “tea ceremony”—also known as Sado and Cha-no-yu . This is simply because it does not exist in other countries the way it exists in Japan. The culture of tea for the Japanese cannot be described by the term “tea ceremony.” It is more than merely drinking tea; it is closely linked to an aesthetic, and to aestheticism. It is the very philosophy that underpins Japanese daily life and hospitality. On the other hand, it has elements of both the performing arts and L'Art de Vivre (the art of living). In addition to presiding over the Urasenke and Hoshinkai schools, Soshin Kimura has written books on Cha-no-yu , appeared in magazines, on television, and supervised the construction of a new tea room in Salone del Mobile a Milano. He doesn’t believe that a tea ceremony necessarily has to be conducted on a tatami mat. However, just because it’s conducted at a table, for example, doesn’t mean it’s okay to be casual. In his conversation with smART Magazine , he recommends finding an opportunity to experience the real and authentic tea ceremony through architecture, gardens, flowers, hanging scrolls, utensils, space, atmosphere, temperature and humidity, the scent of incense, the subtlety of sounds, serenity and tension, confectionary, provisions, green tea, tea cups, brief conversations, and hospitality. sM | How do you understand and translate the concept of Mitate ? SK — “The word Mitate originally comes from Japanese Waka poetry. Wabi is one of the ideas that inspired the act of Mitate in Cha-no-yu . Wabi is a sensibility and philosophy that underpins not only Cha-no-yu , but also the Japanese people to this day. Wabi-Sabi is more than just a love of asymmetry and imperfection. Sabi is not just tranquility or quietness. The word Wabi is derived from the word Wabu, which was used in Japanese poetry. Initially, the word had a negative connotation, expressing feelings of sadness or loneliness. However, with the development of Cha-no-yu , Wabu was transformed into Wabi, an aesthetic with a more powerful and positive value. The two terms Wabi and Sabi are often used to describe Cha-no-yu . For example, I myself would explain the difference between the two in the following way. Sabi can mean tranquility, but in simpler terms it can also mean rustiness. It means “to deteriorate,” “to decay,” or “to rust.” If we think of iron as decaying and rusting, it is deteriorating and we should usually feel sad. However, we should not take it as a negative thing, but rather as a metamorphosis of beauty that has come to have a different beauty from its original state. Wabi is the dynamic action of the mind, the sense of beauty, and Sabi is the beauty of the new metamorphosed form. To reevaluate this new form, and contemplate its unique exquisiteness: that’s what Mitate is all about.” “We can combine various utensils and compose a tea ceremony with Mitate . Authentic Japanese tea ceremony utensils are usually hard to get when you’re overseas though. The most important thing is not necessarily to follow rules and etiquette, or to be bound by them, but to find a different role and beauty in the things around us, and to use them to our own sensitivity. For example, when Sen no Rikyu used a gourd—which was originally a water bottle—as a flower container, he saw the beauty lurking in the simplicity of everyday objects and used them as tea utensils.” Other examples of the current Mitate are like a napkin ring that can be used as a lid rest, or a café au lait bowl that can be used as a matcha tea bowl. “The key is the intimacy between an object and a person. We hold the utensils with both hands and sip from them, so we appreciate the original texture of the objects and the materials they are made of. Moreover, in Japan, each person has his or her own tableware, such as a personal rice bowl, chopsticks, and teacup. It is rare in European tableware that each person has their own cutlery and crockery, and that a person inherits what his or her grandparents or parents used, and continues to use it with care even if it is damaged or chipped.” This is similar to the way in which cracked, chipped, or broken Japanese tea bowls are often repaired with Kintsugi (golden joinery) and continue to be used with care, with close proximity to an individual’s presence or memory. “A real tea ceremony is not just performing arts. It’s about shortening the distance among objects, tools, utensils, and people. It’s not only about objects and people, but also about the huge amount of archives that have been left behind. Through that, we have a dialogue with the deceased, people who have passed away, and our ancestors. That’s one aspect of Cha-no-yu . On top of that, we should enjoy it together. And that’s the interesting part of a tea ceremony. It’s the joy and pleasure of sharing with others at a place where customers come in contact with things made hundreds of years ago, and things made in distant foreign countries. Whether it is something made in France, Japan, Italy, or China, 100 or 300 years ago, or something made yesterday, the joy of a tea ceremony is to share it with someone who is right in front of you and to simultaneously feel the presence of someone in the past.” ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Soulpepper Theatre Celebrates 25 Years 2022/23 Season Puts Canadian Women Front and Center on Toronto’s Premier Stage. WORDS BY MILES FORRESTER | TORONTO | THEATRE FOURTH WALL MAR 16, 2023 | ISSUE 10 "Alice in Wonderland" at Manitoba Theatre For Young People by Leif Norman ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Weyni Mengesha by Mikka Gia.jpeg Virgilia Griffith in "Queen Goneril" - Photo by Dahlia Katz For its 25th season, Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre is returning to full theatres with a mandate to champion Canadian actors and playwrights. All six works featured in this season are spearheaded by female creators. Of the six pieces featured, only one isn’t Canadian—that being Shakespeare's King Lear , which is in repertory with the freshly commissioned Queen Goneril , written by Canadian Erin Shields . Shields wrote this feminist reimagination, centring one of Lear's daughters within the context of Soulpepper’s Six Women Writing program. This stewardship of Canadian female voices is part of Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha’s mission to center the stories told by women, and about women, in this season’s roster of experiences. Mengesha also directed Queen Goneril while Mengesha has been Artistic Director since 2018 and is a prolific director, composer, and community leader. She’s earned recognition from the Drama Critics Circle, Drama League, NAACP, and a Dora award for her compositions in Trey Anthony’s ‘ da Kink in My Hair —which she is also directing a 20th-anniversary remount of in December. Also featured this season is The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale by Haley McGee, Bad Parent by Ins Choi, and the latest Soulpepper concert from the Slaight Family, The Golden Record . Mengesha joined smART Magazine from Toronto, at the tail end of Queen Goneril’s rehearsal process. ARTISTIC DIRECTOR WEYNI MENGESHA sM | Goneril came out of the Six Women Writing program in 2020. How does it feel to be in the thick of something that started just two years ago? WM ─ It’s a beautiful thing to be coming out of the pandemic with. It’s ambitious; we wanted to come back strong with an outlet for artists to be able to write and tell stories from different perspectives. We’re known for our ensemble, our actors are some of the tops in the country. But it’s important – given the size that we are, our resources, and our connections to incredible artists – that we help continue to build new voices and to make sure that we are not just putting on shows from around the world but also really contributing to theatre around the world as Canadians. Last night was the first dress rehearsal, so it’s been really exciting to be part of something from concept to execution. sM | Every single play this season is led by a woman. What more can audiences expect in this season which deliberately platforms stories told by women and that puts women first? WM ─ A big part of our mission is to help fill gaps and do that responsibly. We’ve commissioned six brilliant women, and they’ve created beautiful pieces. Now that one of our six women has had her play on the Main Stage, we want to fill her seat. So, we’re going to commission a new play and keep it going. We’ve had a lot of incredible feedback after doing the Her Words Festival , and we are going to do it again next year. The way that we’re creating our pipeline, we should have a new play every year. sM | What is your mission in developing the potential of companies, such as Outside the March, Bad Hats Theatre, and the red light district? WM ─ Part of our responsibility as a larger cultural organization is sharing resources and supporting other companies. Bad Hats has been an associate company for two years. It’s been really great, both ways, having their fresh energy and ideas. Obviously, with a smaller company, you’re able to be more responsive, flexible, and meet the moments. Outside the March is doing excellent work, exciting work. It’s important that we feed each other—especially now, coming out of the pandemic. We want to stay at the forefront of our artistic conversations and make sure that we are supporting artists that we think are really making an impact. sM | Trey Anthony’s ‘da Kink in My Hair turns 20 this year. What does it mean to you to celebrate this Canadian work, which centers black women? WM ─ A lot has happened. And I think it’s important to look at that play again in this context and see how far we’ve come and what’s changed and to celebrate the new generation of young women. For us, it’s an event; it’s a celebration. When we did ‘da Kink in My Hair originally at the Princess of Wales Theatre, there hadn’t even been another Canadian play in that theatre space. It was made for Miss Saigon , and it was always commercial. The fact that we can create these commercial successes and support them — that we celebrate our writers — feels like it’s a homecoming. SOULPEPPER’S 2022/23 SEASON Tom-McCamus in "King Lear" - Photo by Dahlia Katz.jpg The world premiere of Queen Goneril launched the season in tandem with Shakespeare’s King Lear from August 25–October 2 and August 27–October 1, respectively. Queen Goneril retells Shakespeare’s tragedy of dynastic breakdown with Lear’s eldest daughter as the protagonist. Both productions featured the same cast, with Virgilia Griffith as Goneril, Tom McCamus as King Lear, Helen Belay and Vanessa Sears as Cordelia and Regan, respectively. However, with the shift in perspective from the text, each play featured a different directorial vision, with Kim Collier directing King Lear . Speaking ahead of the premiere, Mengesha says the dual production brings the audience in to dive critically into material they think they know. “They get to watch Lear one night, and on the other night, they go seven years in an imagined past to a world where women are actually at the center. We know in Lear they have 16% of the text, and here they have 90%. The audience can see what that does to the narrative.” From September 15–October 9 Ins Choi’s Bad Parent was staged, co-produced by the Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre and Prairie Theatre Exchange, and directed by Meg Roe. This was one of many of this year’s homecomings, with Choi returning to Soulpepper following the massive success of Kim’s Convenience . Bad Parent is a raw and humorous exploration of parenting in front of an audience, starring Josette Jorge and Raugi Yu. Virgilia Griffith, Vanessa Sears, and Helen Belay in "Queen Goneril" - Photo by Dahlia Katz The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale by writer and star Haley McGee explores the role of neoliberalism in objectifying human relationships. From October 18–November 6, McGee will mathematicize love’s worth to determine which gifts from past boyfriends can be sold to repay her Visa bill. Directed by Mitchell Cushman, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale will be staged at Soulpepper in association with Outside the March and the red light district. Conceived by the Slaight Family Director of Music, Mike Ross ( Spoon River) , The Golden Record is a night of music and storytelling inspired by the Voyager Golden Records, a document of human life and Earth in general that NASA sent into space in 1977 in hopes of reaching intelligent life. Directed by Frank Cox-O’Connell, you can catch the ensemble of Slaight Music Associates performing this from November 9 – November 20. Ending the season is ‘da Kink in my Hair, presented by TO Live and Soulpepper for its 20th anniversary at the Bluma Appel Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts from December 6–23. Winning four NAACP awards, including Best New Playwright for Trey Anthony, the story of a West Indian hair salon in Toronto began as an international Fringe darling and eventually became the first Canadian play performed at the Princess of Wales Theatre. The show subsequently was adapted for television and is now an accepted member of the Canadian canon. BAD HATS THEATRE Bad Hats Core Team (L-R): Matt Pilipiak, Fiona Sauder, Victor Pokinko - Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic Bad Hats is an emerging company of theatre artists who specialize in pieces for all-age audiences. During the pandemic, Soulpepper helped facilitate a filmed production of Bad Hats’s Alice in Wonderland as well as provide them an office. To provide further insight into the mentorship that Soulpepper provides to other companies, Artistic Director of Bad Hats, Fiona Sauder, joined us to reflect on the troupe’s experience as an Associated Company for the past two years. sM | What were some lessons you learned in realizing Alice in Wonderland that will be carried throughout Bad Hats’s future? FS ─ I look back on it as an accelerated course in creative intention. The pandemic’s barriers demanded we be highly specific with our storytelling, caring for our artists, and innovative in carving out space for theatre when almost none felt possible. It presented a miraculous opportunity for us to try. We build all our work on the same model: long development periods breed long-living productions. We don’t create shows to be mounted once. We re-examine and re-draft between productions, always refining our execution and thesis. We developed this when Soulpepper programmed our Peter Pan adaptation three years running, and when Alice meets its first live Toronto audience this winter, it will have transformed many times. As a developing company, we’re keenly aware that we invent the work in tandem with how we create it. We grow alongside it. Soulpepper saying “yes” to this mandate supported the art’s longevity and the artists behind it. The best thing one company can do is to champion another. "Peter Pan" at Soulpepper - Photo by Nicholas Porteous sM | We love that you’re paying it forward with the New Bad Ideas incubator. How does this mentorship invigorate your team’s artistic mission? FS ─ This annual program selects new musical works for all-age audiences from emerging writers and supports them in building their next draft. It’s now closing out its 5th year and continues to hold a mirror up to everything our company is striving for. It calls on all our best care and precision. Our being a multidisciplinary company means program participants collaborate with a producer who is also a composer, a director who is also a writer, a dramaturg who is also an actor, and so on. If we have it to give, it’s given. We have participants interact with the Bad Hats hive because this is how we make our own work. We let all the skills and backgrounds in the room imprint on the piece at hand. In New Bad Ideas, we do the same thing but put the participants in the driver’s seat. For us, it acts as a training ground for our ongoing practice of caring for fledgling ideas. We set out to create the program we wished we had when we were starting. sM | What’s coming down the line for Bad Hats next year? FS ─ Our mainstage adaptations, Peter Pan and Alice In Wonderland, are two pieces of a triptych, each of which explores a different age. Peter Pan encounters characters on the brink of leaving childhood behind, Alice In Wonderland wrestles with the moment we stare down the barrel of adolescence, and the third will be Narnia , which unpacks the seasonal nature of our adult years and end of life. People often ask us why we make work for children, and the truth is: we don’t. We make work inspired by children for the generations who have left childhood behind, reminding them of the outlook they held when they were younger. As Peter Pan continues to be licensed across Canada and Alice heads into its third iteration, we look forward to the first workshops of Narnia and the ongoing life of each of these productions. In addition, our New Bad Ideas program is heading into its 6th year, with a very exciting expansion on the horizon. We’ll also be premiering an immersive piece that travels the grounds of the Harbourfront Centre as part of Toronto’s International Children’s Festival, JUNIOR, in 2023. ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Mark Adamo Making Room for Melismatic Embroidery WORDS BY MILES FORRESTER & MICHAEL ZARATHUS-COOK | NEW YORK | MUSIC THE smART Ensemble NOV 15, 2022 | ISSUE 8 Mark Adamo by Daniel Welch ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Mark Adamo by Daniel Welch Lord of the Cries, Courtesy of the Artist Composer and librettist, Mark Adamo, writes as if he was an actor: he finds the character and emotion of the music, when he crafts his pieces, by experiencing them himself. It’s why he still tears up when he hears the recording by Houston’s River Oaks Chamber Orchestra of his new cello concerto titled Last Year . That piece is an interpellation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons , projected through the prism of the climate crisis. Composing Last Year was a process of becoming conscious of a disaster many of us instinctually ignore. This method is also why he’s an excellent interview subject: he moves intuitively between first and second person when he’s telling a story, pulling the listener into his world of erudition, humour, and “muscular empathy.” His new opera, The Lord of Cries— written in collaboration with his composer-husband, Pulitzer-winner John Corigliano—uses Euripides’ The Bacchae , by way of Bram Stoker’s Dracula , to find the tragedy and empathy in the repressive drives still endemic in our culture now. Adamo takes us on a ride through the history and future of opera—and even the origin of Santa. sM | What was your process like in representing an abstract peril like climate change in Last Year ? MA — The original soloist [Jeffrey Zeigler] and I had been trying to find a moment to make a concerto together for a long time. It occurred to me that it needed to be more than an abstract idea of, “Let me compose a cello concerto.” I was listening to a recording of The Four Seasons because my beloved’s father [John Corigliano, Sr.] was the soloist in it. It’s a wonderful, vital, unusual—rather extreme for its day—way of doing four small concerti, rather than a large movement. There’s an innocence about it. It’s the opposite of waking up in the morning, going out in October and realizing it’s 50 degrees [Farenheit]! I have literally found myself going, “This is seasonal weather. Okay. Take a breath.” But, of course, I turn off the Vivaldi, turn on the news, and the first thing I hear about is how Hurricane Harvey—another once-in-a-lifetime storm—has drowned Houston, a city I know very well. So I thought, “You couldn’t write that Vivaldi concerto today. You couldn’t be that sunny and optimistic.” I thought maybe that’s actually a good idea for a piece. In order to write it, I’d have to confront all the feelings that we spend most of our time not thinking about. All of that dread and hope—and for that matter, guilt—you’ll do something stupid. Like, you’re going to the fish market, buying scallops, and the fishmonger’s wrapping them in plastic. You’ll say, “Oh, I don't need the plastic bag.” You’ll think, “I’ve done something! That’s at least one plastic bag that isn’t ending up in the belly of a porpoise.” Even as you miniaturize that and laugh it off, it’s a denial that you need to employ just to get through the day. In the same way that Vivaldi’s subject isn’t really the seasons—it’s the Italians experiencing them—I came up with the subject of what we moderns experience with the seasons. How can I come up with musical tropes which speak to the way we live now? Maybe this is because I’m principally an opera composer, but I write as if I’m an actor. I have to excavate from my own emotional process, or nerve endings. I also work architecturally, planning events and all of that. But, ultimately, the sounds are coming off your own body in some way. So I’m glad it’s done! ( Laughs ) I’m glad I am no longer doing it. I am glad that it is recorded. sM | What inspired you to cast the god of wine, Dionysus, as Dracula in your opera, The Lord of Cries ? MA — It’s one of the great disturbing characters. The Vampire is Dionysus. And Pentheus [The King of Thebes] is those of us who want to deny the kind of—sometimes ecstatic and sometimes disordering—lifeforce that Dionysus represents. How the whole show began is that I had been invited to consider Dracula for the opera house and couldn’t find a way that didn’t seem like a played card. All the symbolism of that narrative just seemed to be stuff that we had moved beyond. But the idea that in some way you can deny nature through force of will, or desire to be good… we’re still dealing with that. We often read this as comedy. Whenever you hear of some anti-gay Congressman trying to lobby against marriage equality—set your watch. You know that in two weeks, you’re going to find him dragged blinking from the boyfriend’s meth den. It’s funny because it’s banal. But it’s still going on, this desire. The subtext is: “If I align myself with the ‘forces of good,’ I can change who I am.” That’s actually not a funny story. That’s actually a rather deep story. I follow the Zadie Smiths, the Richard Russos, and the Tony Kushners of the world saying the real value of art is muscular empathy. It’s trying to understand, not just the people who are like you, but to get inside the people who are not at all like you and try to figure out how they tick. I thought, “That’s where Dionysus comes in.” The Dionysus-Pentheus dynamic is really the oldest example in our dramatic literature, in which we see that thing at work. And if you read Dracula through the lens of Dionysus, you realize it’s the same story. The only thing that Stoker does is put on this falsely happy ending in this Pentheus-like hope that, “Oh, we really can , we can wish this away.” But then he says it’s weird, that of all the documents that tell the story, none of them are firsthand. It’s only newspaper stories and memoranda. He’s already planting the doubt that the Vampire could stay in the coffin. So that’s why I thought that it would be really good in a modern piece. sM | Collaborating with your husband for this opera, who was Dionysus and who was Apollo? MA — One of the reasons I thought that John would be right for this is because, if you know the score of Altered States or anything of his, no one can do the atavistic, no one can do the chthonic—these seemingly chaotic sounds—better than John. The end of Circus Maximus is absolutely the end of the world. I’m a composer as well, and I’ve known him for 20-something years, so I know how he ticks a little bit. For example, the language is a little more elevated than it might be in another project, because that’s what John responds to. Mark Adamo by Daniel Welch My role was not so much to assert order and try to tamp him down, quite the opposite. The idea was, “Let’s make the shape.” Here’s where we want to set up the Apollonian world, then this language is where everything should overwhelm. There are moments in which the more disciplined Pentheus music is much more strophic and tightly formed. Then, when we get into Dionysus, there’s much more of Euripides’ language. It’s looser! There’s more room for repetition. There’s more room for melismatic embroidery, so he can throw a thousand notes into a single syllable. That will not only give him the freedom, but give the audience the impression that this is how the Dionysian forces are coming up from under and cracking through the surface. Another way of answering your question is: the way to avoid conflict is to accept that there’s going to be. Both of those values need to be there. When it needs to be Apollonian, make it Apollonian. When it needs to be Dionysian, set it up and let it bleed. I was in a unique position to do that because I do both. I’ve done that in my own work. I’ve gotten to a point in a libretto and said, “Do I need this?” And I cut it. ( Laughs ) So at that point, the composer overrules the librettist. The libretist had a good idea and the composer had a better one. Sometimes the opposite is true, where it’s: “I need more here. I’m going to have to go back and expand this because, musically, I need more to hang on to it. The language isn’t giving it to me.” Because I’m my own world, it's easier for me to collaborate, particularly with John. sM | Technology and performance appear more enmeshed than ever. As an artist and aesthete, what is lost and what is gained? MA — What’s gained is flexibility and intimacy—in so far as the most effective multimedia productions tend to happen in smaller houses. You can cast a singer whose voice does not need to be acoustically organized in such a way that she can fill, unamplified, a 3,000–seat house and soar over a Strauss orchestra. If she has the right sound and colour—and is the right actress—she can make just enough sound to make it beautiful and expressive, the technology can take that and run with it. There’s a risk that the better the technology, the more miniature the performer seems. It’s possible for technology to take so much of the expressive burden—and we’re all living on screens, we are “screen creatures”—the question that arises is: “Why are we going to the theater to begin with?” If we want the live experience simply to recreate the brilliant streaming experience, then why bother? The question is not so new. This has been true—particularly in opera—since the turn of the last century. Once there was the camera, once there was the microphone and the phonograph, opera was dethroned as the largest acoustic experience—the loudest acoustic experience you could have. If you went to a production of Aida , the equivalent would be seeing Dune . Mark Adamo Cello Concerto, ROCO. Concert, Courtesy of Melissa Taylor Photography I think it’s telling that the very first silent films actually took operatic subjects. There was a King Vidor La Bohème ! The ability of spectacle was shifting to the camera, shifting to the microphone. As we know from a rock concert, one person at a guitar and a drum set can drown out the sound of a [Boeing] 757. So what then? If we are then going to see people playing this box with some strings on it, and other people behind them playing boxes with strings on it: Why? How’s that better than the recording? What need do we have for that, that is not being fulfilled by all of our glittering toys? We used a little technology in The Lord of Cries , very little treating the voices, to give the impression that the divine figures were leaving the human realm and were now becoming unearthly. A very little echo, but not a whole lot—that I completely support. You know, that sense that the technology is giving you a different kind of experience than the acoustic version. But we need to be aware of the risk of the tail wagging the dog. sM | As well as Dionysus, you’re taking on another mythic subject in Becoming Santa Claus. What can you say about this production? MA — It’s the Chicago premiere actually. It’s also the first time that piece has been produced on the scale that it was written. We did this glorious production in Dallas with six dancers and it was thrilling, but it was only written for the seven singers. It’s still being quasi-choreographed, but it’s just with the seven principals, which I think is probably going to make it more focused. It’s trying to do an origin myth of Santa Claus. That was another opera that I dabbled a little bit in technology, just in the Dallas production. At one point in the second act, Prince Claus has forced this quartet of elves to come up with the most spectacular toys imaginable because they are going to show up at the manger and outshine the gifts of the Magi. I made up the idea that the Magi are actually elves in disguise. The good news is the toys are spectacular and the bad news is that, because it’s taken so long to make them, they’re not going to get there in time unless the Prince’s mother—who is a sorceress—can intervene. And so the Prince has the elves do this audition of these four toys, one after the other, to persuade the Queen of the value of the project and to get them to the manger. The last one, the bass elf, has this thing that looks like a telescope upfront. He does this rather delicate sort-of Music Man /Gilbert and Sullivan patter song. But then in the second verse, it turns into a microphone and he does a quasi-rap. An elf rap. ( Laughs ) The point is that, again, like in The Lord of Cries , this thing that was once in one register when it’s acoustic, becomes a very different kind of thing when it’s amplified. The same text and the same music largely, but because of the amplification, we got another kind of quasi-spoken word that you would not be able to do acoustically, as easily. I’m neither anti-technology nor pro-technology. I feel like it’s another tool. I don’t feel that acoustic technology is going to be displaced by electronics, partly because, as we become more surrounded by electronics, we really long for the human. The question is, how do you do that in a way that honours both of those things? ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Chad Lawson With breathe , the pianist and composer delivers beautiful music for a crazy world WORDS BY EMILY PITTMAN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY NEIL KRUG | NEW YORK | THE smART ENSEMBLE THE smART Ensemble Feb 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Chad Lawson By Neil Krug “I wanted to create something where people could close their eyes and just exhale what they‘re carrying.” Chad Lawson We’re all looking for ways to overcome our daily stressors. The idea of there being a free, universally accessible tool that can slow a racing heart, calm a frazzled mind, and help us reconnect with our inner world sounds too good to be true. But pianist, composer, and podcaster Chad Lawson’s latest album, breathe , is a reminder of the power of our breath as a level for calming our often nervous nervous systems. breathe , along with his live pre-show breathwork sessions, are both musical experiences and mindfulness toolkits, equipping audience members with techniques they can apply to their daily lives─not the least being the ability to listen deeply to music. The piano is, for Lawson, an agent of connection. He views his instrument as a family member, capable of strengthening bonds and holding space for challenging emotions through shared reflections. This communal functionality of the piano seeps into the ethos of his performances, wherein Lawson actively invites his audiences to enter into a relationship with the music and, in turn, with each other. For breathe however, Lawson moved beyond the solo piano to gather the full gale force of the entire Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) for a listening experience that transmits a collective mindfulness in every track. More than an album, it is a transformative experience of healing and empowerment, one that can be revisited whenever a relaxed state of mind is desired. In addition to his work as a composer, Lawson’s top-ranking Calm it Down podcast is likewise on a mission to better the mental health of his listeners. With strangers sharing their struggles and vulnerabilities, the platform seems to meet a dire, ubiquitous need for support and connection. Ultimately, the thread that connects all of Lawson’s work is a humble desire for connection, to meet people where they are, especially when that place is dark and lonesome. www.chadlawson.com | @chadlawson breathe Cover Art ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ Chad Lawson RE:BREATHING sM | You recorded the pieces on breathe both as solo works and with the RPO, how does the concept of breathing alone and breathing together inform your compositional process? CL ── I‘ve always been a solo pianist as far as how I think about things, but I wanted there to be more colour in this release. What I wanted to do initially was to have the album be programmatic, so the very first song would‘ve been on solo piano, the second song would‘ve been a duet, then a trio, then quartet─and just grow from there. You‘re letting go of everything that you‘ve been carrying, and you‘re bringing people in to help you let go of that. It worked out to where we could create with this massive orchestra ... and I‘m not gonna turn down the idea of doing all these songs with the RPO. When we all came together, not to be cliché, it was the most magical experience I‘ve ever had. We had these two years of being completely alone, and now you‘re surrounded with the most beautiful sound in the world. You have everyone come back together again, and it is this huge exhale. That was the whole purpose of the album, breathe . I wanted to create something where people could close their eyes and just exhale what they‘re carrying. As you leave this door going back out into the world, what things are you gonna leave behind? What things are you not going to pick up on your way out? That‘s what this album is. SOLACE sM | What opportunity do you see in classical music as a solace for our uniquely modern anxieties? CL ── If you look at my stats as far as listenership, the numbers are highest from Sunday night through Thursday. But when it comes to Thursday night or Friday morning, it drops like a rock because nobody wants to listen to this on the weekend. But Sunday afternoon they‘re back up again. What does that tell you? You are creating something where they wanna listen to it while they‘re studying, reading, or some kind of activity that isn‘t distracting. They need something that is very calming, but also very nurturing─just not during the weekend. Years ago I did an album called Re:Piano and the whole idea was shaped when I was touring. I began seeing bands that didn‘t have pianos anymore, but they were using iPads. That‘s the generation, they‘re growing up with iPads. My idea was, what if I were to run an acoustic piano through the iPad and create something different? So you have the traditional, and you have the touchscreen. You get them interested and then, all of a sudden, maybe, they set up the piano without the iPad. My whole purpose and everything that I‘m trying to do, even with breathe , is that I‘m trying to get rid of the idea that this has to be something very specific, very formulaic. I just want people to be able to feel without judgement. BREATHWORK sM | How does running influence you as a composer? CL ── As a runner, there are days where I will run two minutes, and then I have to stop and open up Evernote: “Ah, it‘s a great idea.” It really inspires many ideas, and not necessarily musically, but also business-wise. For me, running, yoga, breathwork, and stepping away from the piano─that‘s where I get my creative ideas. The whole purpose is that the listener resonates with what we’re doing, and a lot of times that means getting out of our own heads to make that happen. COMMUNITY sM | What‘s surprised you the most about this community you‘ve gathered with the Calm it Down podcast? CL ── I started the podcast at the onset of the pandemic. I was grounded and I couldn‘t tour, I still wanted to be in my listeners’ ears, but all of a sudden it had to be on a different platform. No longer on the stage. It was more or less behind a microphone. And I was like, “You know what? I‘m gonna dive in. I‘m gonna go after this. I‘m gonna create a podcast where the two main things are: I want it to be light, and I want it to be encouraging.” So now, two years later, it's got three million downloads. It‘s in the top 1% globally. It’s just taken a whole life of its own. I hear everything from suicide to sexual abuse and everything in between. It‘s surprising how transparent complete strangers will be, and I think that‘s a sign people are two things: they‘re looking for help, and they don't know how to ask for it. One of the biggest things I hear is: “I don‘t know how to talk about what I‘m going through.” I‘m hopefully creating a space where we can talk about this around the virtual dinner table. PIANO sM | The piano is a prominent component of this podcast experience. Why do you think this instrument lends itself so easily to calm, despite its percussive nature? CL ── The piano is like a family member. It‘s something that we‘ve always grown up with. Back in the day, the piano was the epicentre of the house. It‘s what you gathered around when you sang holiday songs. It‘s what you heard when you went to bed─your mom or dad playing piano late at night. I don‘t necessarily think it‘s because it‘s a piano, or the sense of it being an instrument. I think it just has a comforting sense of familiarity, like a family member just holding your hand, just being like, “We‘re gonna get through this. It‘s gonna be okay.” Chad Lawson PRE-SHOW SHOW sM | A sizeable portion of the folks showing up to these concerts probably also listen to Calm it Down . What communal atmosphere are you looking to establish in these concerts that‘s different from the typical recital experience? CL ── I want the audience to be a part of the experience of listening. It‘s going back to the idea that it‘s not about Chad Lawson. It‘s about us trying to create something together where we‘re able to say, “I am going through something. How do I do this without being alone?” In a lot of cities, I‘ll do a breathwork session prior to the concert, an hour before the show. I like doing this because we don‘t know how to listen to music. We don‘t know how to be present with anything that we‘re doing right now. It‘s no shade. It‘s just kinda the circumstances of life that we‘re in. Then, what I like to do is walk the audience through a couple of breathing exercises to where then they can appreciate, whatever it may be. I think the pandemic has told us that there is a separate reality that we‘re all beginning to embrace, which is just being present. Those breathwork sessions are usually an hour long and we get deep. There are adults crying at these things, because we go through a lot. ON THE ROAD sM | How do you find your calm on the road? CL ── Honestly, it’s yoga and sweets ( Laughs ). My wife is a professional baker, so generally what I do is I get to the hotel room, drop my bags, do about an hour of yoga, and then try to find the best pastry in every city that I‘m in. It‘s just having no agenda. I get to the hotel, do some stretches, and then I literally open up Google and try to find good donuts or something. Then I try to find something really healthy. You have to have a balance, right? ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Xiaoyu Weng at the AGO A Fresh Perspective for Toronto’s ‘Tightly Knit’ Art Community WORDS BY ISABELLA ELIAS | OLD HEATHFIELD | VISUAL ARTS SPACES MAR 03, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Xiaoyu Weng by Evgeny Litvinov ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Ken Lum, "Always Waiting for A Call to Work", 2021. Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm. Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Ken Lum, "I Lost My Job", 2021. Digital print on archival paper, 198.12 x 259.08 cm. Courtesy of Royale Projects and Ken Lum. © Ken Lum Xiaoyu Weng has a unique vantage point. With international curatorial experience – including The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City – she is able to view the trajectory of Toronto’s gallery ecosystem, with its entrenched identities and histories, from a global perspective. Weng has brought her artist-first curatorial practice to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), along with her excitement and eagerness to learn, and now works collaboratively with her colleagues to bring together the tightly knit community, the diverse audience, and the museum collection. Weng joins smART Magazine to discuss the inspiration behind her creative mission and the way our understanding of art shapes everyday connections. sM | As a curator for galleries in Torontoand New York City, what differences do you see between the gallery ecosystems of the two metropolitan areas? XW ── New York and Toronto are very different cities, with very different trajectories, especially concerning art. I don’t care much for the logic of comparison—each city has its own history, identity, and future, and that’s good. New York’s identity as an art centre is more entrenched, as evidenced by its many museums and commercial art galleries, but its future is no less knowable for that. I’ve been in Toronto for almost a year, and for me, what’s very distinctive is how tightly knit the art community is here. I see in Toronto exciting opportunities for artistic collaboration. By forging alliances, we amplify the vibrancy of this city. sM | Since joining the AGO, what elements of the gallery and its hosting city have inspired your creative mission the most? XW ── Definitely one of the most appealing aspects of working at the AGO has been the museum’s openness to thinking about art cross–departmentally, transnationally, and transhistorically. I am so excited by what I can learn from my colleagues – be they specialists in late mediaeval art or photography – and to work in a setting where art is understood as something essentially human, whose relevance is not limited by dates or geography. That is inspiring, especially as I consider the diversity of Toronto, and what it means to be located in Chinatown and to be connecting audiences to art and artists from around the world. The strength of the museum’s collection of contemporary Indigenous art and its commitment to engaging with it has been an important learning moment for me as well. ​ As a curator, I’m very interested in how history and aesthetics intersect with everyday life, and the role museums play in shaping that connection. Ken Lum is a great artist, whose work makes obvious – with wry humour no less – the many forces that form us and how we see art. I was proud to curate his work in Death and Furniture (on view through January 2023). ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

On Nodate: Open-air Tea Ceremony Tea ceremony instructor reflects on the evolution of the Japanese tea ceremony. WORDS BY ADAM SŌMU WOJCIŃSKI | TOKYO | PERFORMANCE NOV 15, 2022 | ISSUE 8 Photograph Courtesy of Adam Sōmu Wojcińsk ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Photograph Courtesy of Adam Sōmu Wojcińsk Photograph Courtesy of Adam Sōmu Wojcińsk I’m in it everywhere What a miracle: trees, lakes, clouds, even dust. - Ikkyū Sōjun The first Nodate , or open-air tea ceremony, goes back to tea’s origin story. Shennong, the ‘Divine Farmer’ of Chinese mythology, was trialling medicinal plants when leaves on burning twigs of the tea plant were carried up by the hot air of the fire, and landed in his pot of boiling water. Shennong cupped the brew from his kettle and took the first taste of tea: the beverage that would become a common meeting ground for all humanity. Gathering around a fire to enjoy tea has been a human ‘ritual’ from time immemorial. But nowhere has tea been elevated to a true ritual status like in Japan. By the 15th century, tea drinking was surrounded by opulence and protocol so excessive that it provoked an aesthetic revolution felt in the words of one tea master who cautioned: “Tea is always in danger of becoming like decorative costumes of court musicians. A tea person should perform with paucity in all things.” It was time to refocus tea practice on the essentials. Luxury imported goods were substituted by forging tea scoops and vases from everyday bamboo, and wooden water pails were preferred over perfect celadon pitchers. This brought focus to the idea of facing one’s fleeting existence by embracing nature. Reverence for the beauty of nature also shook the foundations of tea house architecture. Lacquered beams and wallpaper matched the elegant look of Southern Song porcelain imports. These materials were edited down to mud walls that harmonized with the rustic finish of locally crafted ceramics. The daub wall also provided an ideal setting for flowers to be displayed as if in the wild. After reducing tea’s aesthetic to a more elemental state, it was natural to move past the tea house altogether and return to tea ceremony in the open-air. In 1587, tea master Sen Rikyū held a legendary Nodate on a white sand beach in Hakata. Rikyū suspended his kettle by a chain from a pine branch and gathered pine needle kindling to boil water. In the open-air, he served tea to the most celebrated members of the ruling class. Tea’s aesthetic environment had come full-circle since Shennong’s first sip of the ancient elixir. Nowadays, Nodate is a core element of the Tea Way that aims to embody non-separation of practice and spiritual realization. Some memorable Nodate I have conducted include: a 24-hour tea gathering in a Melbourne laneway, tea at the summit of Ryūsen-ji temple overlooking the Seto Inland Sea, a spontaneous tea stop at a roadside pottery in Zimbabwe; purveying Tea at Makola Market, Ghana, and tea by a river in the Drôme region of France. In Nodate , we directly empathize with the transient nature of flowers, forests, seasides and sunsets, and look into the mirror of our mortality. In moss, flowers, and trees, we also identify with the life coursing through these forms and striving for higher achievements. Therefore, the inherent sorrow in nature that—all things must end—is constantly evolving towards joy. This truth steeps each fleeting bowl of tea with unassailable meaning. Adam is a direct disciple of, and official English translator to, Ueda Sōkei, the 16th Grandmaster of the Ueda Sōko Tradition of Chanoyu. He is the principal instructor of the Sōmu Shachū branch of the Ueda Sōko school. He is of Polish-Australian heritage and is based in Marseille, France. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

SOMArts: Maria Jenson Meet the Creative and Executive Director of San Francisco’s SOMArts WORDS BY CAMILLA MIKOLAJEWSKA | SAN FRANCISCO | VISUAL ARTS SPACES, HUBS & HUDDLES JUN 13, 2023 | ISSUE 4 Photo by Jeremy Fokkens ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ SOMArts has a true community-first approach, making them a spectacular place to enhance both your artistic and cultural knowledge. Maria Jenson, Creative and Executive Director of SOMArts, shares some insight into the creative process behind her organization’s emotionally provoking exhibits, support for emerging artists, and dedication to the Bay Area community. sM | What inspires you and your team in the curatorial process for such diverse exhibits? MJ ─ It definitely is a team effort! We don’t have a curator per se, we have a number of community collaborators and work with Carlina Quintanilla, our Director of Curatorial Partnerships. We also review submissions through our curatorial residency program which is really exciting for us. It is a nine-month incubator program that provides a unique opportunity for emerging curators and artists to gain mentorship and support in order to execute large scale exhibitions in our approximately 31,000 sq. feet space. Three residencies are awarded each season through an open call process which allows them an opportunity to further expand on their curatorial practice and explore timely social issues. Additionally we provide space to three longer term partnership organizations: Queer Cultural Centre, Asian Pacific Islander Centre. and ArtSpan–each of those organizations curate their own exhibitions annually. We also work with the SF Foundation to co-produce the Murphy and Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards , which is a focus group on the Bay Area visual artists. These awards champion the artists who are in their first year of the MFA program. A lot of rewards go to people who finish something, but this is great as it recognizes their developing process and ideas, and it’s nice that they get some funding support at this time. It also gives these artists recognition, we have a lot of art dealers and gallerists who come to these exhibits and often they are being approached by folks already. We’ve had to move so many things to the virtual realm, and sometimes you worry that things may be lost in translation. It’s interesting to see that we don’t have a curator, as it’s almost as though the community is curating their own space. It’s the artists and the curators, who are bringing forward these proposals and we are providing economic, installation and mentoring support, to give these visions a chance to have life. We have also learned from these artists and curators, making it very organic and intentional. sM | Do you mainly focus on the Bay area? MJ ─ The art world is a global reality. We are very regional or geographically specific. We sense that the Bay area is a community where, unlike New York or L.A where there are lots of opportunities or ways to engage, the Bay area is unique as a lot of great talent is developed here but the opportunities don’t present themselves as frequently. Many artists in the Bay Area do go on to have a career in major cities or across the globe, but for our purposes as a cultural centre, that is at once an arts organization but also belongs to the community, we focus largely on community. We are really looking at those artists who don’t get an opportunity. I’m not a big fan of the word underrepresented or marginalized, I’m thinking more it really has to do with where is the opportunity? And how do people find the opportunity? And that really becomes for some aspect of the art world, very much about who you know while for us we try to make it as publicly accessible as possible and we really want to nurture those artists that live in the Bay. SOMArts functions as an incubator space for artists. A lot of artists who have worked with us are now exhibiting in major museums, so some of the same artists that we were like “omg someone should recognize this artist!” are now part of major exhibits at SFMOMA for example. Our work is not about being competitive, it’s a pipeline, a point of entry into the art world. We have made sure that we are serving our artists and curators with what they need, so when they do go into a larger opportunity they are equipped with the tools they need to succeed, such as negotiating contracts or understanding the value of their work. They have a sense that what they are doing can take them out into the world. So for me it feels like a very special garden that we keep turning the soil over and planting new special seeds. sM | How do you think the role of being an artist and activist overlap in our current social climate? MJ ─ Art and activism has overlapped since the beginning of time. They have a critical and important effect on the world. For some art, it may not be as obvious, but the aim of an artist or activist is to create art that is a form of political and social currency, actively addressing cultural power structures rather than representing them or simply describing them. Not a lot has changed. What has changed now, which is why I think this question comes up, is social media. Social media has made these images immediately available on a global scale. That’s why the impact of artists and activists feels much more immediate for all of us and I think we almost look to our artists now as our first responders when something comes up that is a political, social, racial issue. It’s almost as if the artists are on the ground before anyone else is, playing back to us an image of what we are seeing on the nightly news, yet somehow art has made it feel much more immediate. The sensationalism has been removed and instead we are looking at what the root causes are. So to me, art and activism is about empowering the individual and the community and it’s generally situated in a public arena, where artists are working closely with communities. If we think about the partnership of art activism and BLM, or the Women’s March or Pussy Riot, anything really—we almost now assume that art is the main communicator of information and is much more impactful and credible than looking at online news. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Starry Opera Night Celebrated Soprano Ambur Braid reimagines Salome for an Immersive space. WORDS BY ISABELLA ELIAS | ORTISEI | VISUAL ARTS MAR 03, 2023 | ISSUE 9 Ambur Braid by Jeremy Lewis ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Dan Kurtz by Jeremy Lewis Isaac Rayment by Jeremy Lewis “It was the last show I did before the world shut down,” says international opera sensation Ambur Braid of Oper Frankfurt’s production of Salome , playing the princess who wins the head of John the Baptist by performing the infamous ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’ for King Herod. But the global shutdown presented artists like herself and creative talents in the live concert industry with an opportunity to reimagine how opera is presented and delivered to audiences beyond the constraints of shuttered traditional venues. In partnership with musician/producer Dan Kurtz and visual designer Isaac Rayment, she will resurrect the COVID-cancelled character for an operatic experience staged at the same venue where Lighthouse Immersive’s Van Gogh projection installation has been dazzling Torontonians. “What if this great voice got stuck in the middle of a concrete box and we surrounded it with light?” Kurtz extols the potential of a gallery space equipped with 53 HD projectors that can immerse a socially-distanced audience in a wall-to-floor-to-ceiling photonic set that leaves conventional opera staging in the pre-pandemic dust. A visual designer specializing in projection mapping with decades of experience directing music videos and live concert videos for everyone from Johnny Cash to Justin Timberlake, Rayment first tried his hand at this new technology in 2010 by creating these ‘maps’ for TED Talks. “It was like they were watching a magic show,” he says of the audience, sharing that the producers asked him to dial it back because people were tuning out of the talks to watch his projections. Now one of the most in-demand technologies sweeping multiple event industries in the past few years, Rayment was hooked by this amazing new art form that could transform a space, able to “basically create live special effects in the real world.” Kurtz had collaborated with Braid for a memorable gig at the COC’s 2015 OperaNation as the bassist of Dragonette, where he provided synths and electric drums to back up her ‘rockstar’ performance of Mozart’s iconic ‘Queen of the Night’ aria. Citing it as his favourite event out of the 200+ shows he’d played that year, Kurtz reconnected with the celebrated diva in the early days of lockdown after having to cancel a year’s worth of shows. He describes Braid as “of a generation of people who can’t ignore the fact that there’s so much potential and dynamic power in opera, but if it’s constrained to the more traditional opera houses, it sort of precludes a huge audience,” listing barriers to attendance like cost, formality, and language. “Yet, it’s the kind of thing that rarely does anybody come away from watching somebody sing with that amount of power and precision without being wowed regardless of if you’re 65 or 12.” “ Salome is an incredible piece,” Braid shares, “I mean, you get the genius that is Strauss and then the genius that is Oscar Wilde; there are some beautiful lines in it. It’s incredibly poetic and so disturbing which is very fun to play and fun to experience.” The story of a young girl who leverages her stepfather’s desire to see her perform the ‘Dance of the Seven Veils’, Salome demands that Herod award her the head of the man she adores who has refused to kiss or even look upon her. “The scene that we’re cutting to and doing in the show is essentially a love scene between her and a decapitated head,” Braid shares, expanding on the allure of such a disturbing dynamic. “The question is, does she know he’s dead? There’s all of these things you can do with it. She speaks to the head, ‘Why are your eyes shut? Why don’t you look at me? If you look at me you’ll fall in love with me’. So there is always a question of is she completely there , does she know what’s actually happening?” Audiences will have to interpret for themselves while occupying the same stage and space as Braid herself. Though Salome was chosen as the opera to develop in the unique gallery space, Braid created five programming options that she’s begun to perform with friends in yet another untraditional venue: her barn, with an audience spread out on picnic blankets. “It’s quite a tactile and quite a physical experience because the proximity is different,” she comments about her ‘Opera in the Wild’ performances—which share this tactility with the coming installation. Maintaining the physical connection between voice and audience was Braid’s main priority in developing the concept with Kurtz and Rayment, since opera singers train their entire lives to sing without technical amplification. “The way the sound hits the body is unlike anything else,” she explains. “And that’s why so many people are moved to tears: it’s the acoustics. It gets into your bones and it reverberates and there are so few things that can do that. A live event was what mattered to me in the most safe way we can do it, because we’re missing that. And more than ever people need that; they need the human contact, the release, and a safe space to feel that power.” “There’s a new degree of engagement and immersion for an audience,” says Kurtz. “We wouldn’t be having these thoughts and considerations and be dreaming up these kinds of shows if not for the fact that our entertainment choices have been so limited over the last 15 months.” He was impressed when they did a test run with Braid and the instrumentation to see “quite how unnecessary the visuals [of traditionally staged opera] can be in that setting, because if you put a voice like that and a pianist like that in a room and they just start playing… your mind is f***ing blown.” The installation space also offers innovative ways of sharing information with the audience; while opera audiences would normally have to scan what they can of a printed program before the lights go down, Rayment will create a program entirely of light wrapped around the projection space. “When guests first get there, they’re greeted by this immersive landscape explaining the show they’re about to see,” Rayment shares, saying this will include information about Strauss, Wilde, Braid, the synopsis and perhaps the tech too. “And then from there we’re going to transition into the actual performance, which will be a more focused experience at one end of the space.” ​ The space’s size creates certain challenges in mapping out focal points for the eye and ear. Since only fifty people can be permitted at one time in the cavernous former site of Toronto’s printing presses, Kurtz says that maintaining intimacy in a space the size of a parking lot will be a central challenge addressed while developing the preview. “You can create an enormous palette with no focal point in it and be wowed by the universe you could create in there, but if you’re trying to get people to focus on one singer, how are you gonna do that?” Braid also stresses that the grandness of the space need not overwhelm the intimacy of her performance. “The venue is cool for a multitude of reasons,” she comments. “I am the physical aspect in a lot of ways but it’s the sound that I think will be the most affecting because it’s like singing in a bathtub. Instead of singing full on I have to scale it down while still expressing everything…it’s going to be so intense for the people in that room.” Audiences used to conventional opera houses will need to recalibrate along with the creatives involved. Kurtz expands on how he and Rayment are being asked to add another dimension to their usual processes, and that this project “explodes everything we know in the sense of the things that we’ve done for a really long time and consider ourselves really good at.” But he adds significantly that the fundamentals of creating an emotional narrative arc remain universal, and that their prior experience gives them “an instinctual understanding of what people need to take away a complete experience.” As the visual designer, Rayment iterates the importance of having a strong core concept to work from. “This is a reach on everybody’s part,” says Kurtz. “No one is an opera expert except for Ambur and yet…it’s just at our fingertips what the potential of what something like this is. Our hope is that what we’re doing is developing a template to produce an incredibly wide range of experiences for people there, and this would just be the beginning.” In the same way that people who might not be fans of van Gogh come to the gallery to see a room full of moving projections, Kurtz cites the technology itself as attractive “for people who don’t know anything about opera … it has potential to draw people into re-imagining and re-experiencing opera.” Ambur Braid says the element of this dazzling installation that she’s most looking forward to simply seeing what the response is from people hearing a human voice with their bodies in the space. There may be new restrictions for art-lovers and opera-goers to navigate, but projects like these reveal the restrictions that we already abided by in order to experience this highly physical form of music. The proscenium functioned as a brain-blood barrier between performer and audience for centuries until immersive creators began to subvert it, but in an era that leaves many longing for the immediacy of connection, transcending the fourth wall takes on a new, urgent meaning. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Jay Baruchel: All-Canadian Charmer 15 questions with Jay Baruchel WORDS BY MADELEINE KANE | PERFORMANCE APR 11, 2023 | ISSUE 5 Jay Baruchel by Kalya Ramu ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Sifting through any genre-defining comedy of the last decade, you’d almost certainly find the scruffy yet relaxed charismatic magnet personified by the all-Canadian charmer, Jay Baruchel. As a familiar onscreen staple, with a career spanning over two decades, Baruchel’s performances range from box-office hits to raucous blockbuster comedies, to acclaimed and poignant dramas. In recent years, Baruchel has delved fully into his life behind the camera as a writer and director. His author’s debut, Born Into It: A Fan’s Life , a memoir of lifelong devotion to the Montreal Canadiens, was published in 2018. In 2020, amidst the chaotic reshuffling of pandemic cinema, Baruchel released his directorial debut Random Acts of Violence , for which he also co-wrote the screenplay. A savory summer-road slasher inspired by brusque graphic-novel gore, Random Acts pumped fresh blood into the Canadian horror scene, and solidified Baruchel as a no-holds-barred director with even more up his sleeve. Inspired by our Proust Questionnaire , Jay Baruchel joins us for a special Q&A and unveils the secret facets of what motivates his multi-talented creative mind, and the private inspiration behind an enduring career sM | What is your idea of perfect happiness? JB — Reading books on the porch with nowhere to be. sM | Your greatest fear? JB — Dying young. sM | The trait you most deplore in yourself? JB — Bad temper. sM | Trait you most deplore in others? JB — Feeling sorry for yourself. sM | What do you consider the most overrated virtue? JB — Being true to one's self. sM | What do you most dislike about your apprearance? JB — My smile. sM | Love of your life? JB — My wife. sM | Favorite occupation? JB — Directing. sM | Your chief characteristic? JB — Propensity for daydreaming. sM | What do you most value in your friends? JB — Loyalty and respect. sM | Historical figure you most identify with? JB — Flight Lieutenant George Beurling. sM | Your real life heroes? JB — My mother, my wife, my sister. sM | What is it that you most dislike? JB — Inequity. sM | Your greatest regret? JB — Not joining the army. sM | A good place to die? JB — In Canada. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

CERAMICS: Raluca Buzura From kindling to kiln, how ceramics become wearable art installations WORDS BY AMELIA JOHANNSEN | TORTOSA | VISUAL ARTS MATERIALS FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Photography Courtesy Of The Artist ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 Can jewellery have the same magnitude of expression as more traditional visual arts media? Romanian designer Raluca Buzura thinks so. By pushing the limits of personal adornment to communicate something deeper about the human condition, Buzura promotes a broader understanding about the role of jewellery in the progressive art movement. Her evocative works of wearable art are not only beautifully handcrafted, they’re a representation of cultural and societal attitudes of our time. Buzura’s unique body of work is the result of many years of inquiry, experimentation, passion, and dedication. This process led her to combine classical craftsmanship with sophisticated symbolism. Through her choice of materials, patterns, colours, and forms, Buzura is able to express complex realisations of femininity, climate change, and materialism while staying at the cutting edge of fashion design. Joining smART Magazine from Tortosa, in the north-eastern coastal region of Spain, Buzura breaks down her creative process, from the kindling of an idea to the firing of a kiln... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Bernadett Timko Oil, Wood, and Linens by the Countryside WORDS BY EMILY TRACE | SAN FRANCISCO | STUDIO SESSIONS STUDIO SESSIONS NOV 29, 2022 | LIGHTHOUSE IMMERSIVE Art by Bernadett Timko ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Art by Bernadett Timko Art by Bernadett Timko Born in Hungary and now based in a small town in northeast Wales, Bernadett Timko’s work is often inspired by the sceneries of her everyday surroundings. Working primarily with oil paints on wood or linen, Timko gracefully captures a wide range of objects and a variety of subjects with an eclectic but muted colour palette. She joins smART Magazine to discuss how she arrives at choosing her subjects, how the mood of her surroundings are reflected in her pieces, and a piece of insightful advice for emerging artists looking to disseminate their work to a larger audience. sM | How does your surrounding environment — landscape, architecture, nature, friendships, music — influence the mood and aesthetic of your paintings? BT ── All those things have an influence on my work but my home environment is my main source of inspiration. It has the biggest influence on how I feel and what I paint, as it’s a safe space to process things and make sense of the world, if that’s possible at all. It all comes from being present and noticing the little things in me and around me. Whatever I see that resonates with me in the moment and feels true to me, I paint it. The mood and aesthetic of my paintings are a simple reflection of how I see things: the colours I am drawn to in general, the unpolished imperfections, things that are simple and often overlooked but they bring joy into the mundane. sM | When do you know you’ve found a subject you'd like to paint? BT ── It happens in a split second. I see something, maybe the morning sunlight on the wall of my house, or just a photo of a friend or a stranger—and in their expression I recognize myself. Or in a bowl of noodles all squiggly and there is a lovely little red pepper piece that already looks like a brushstroke. I immediately can see things as paintings. It all depends on my mood. I have to feel how my subject feels even if it’s an inanimate object. When is a painting finished? That’s always a big question but I think it’s the same for everyone and it’s a simple decision. There comes a moment when it all just feels right and it says enough. I can’t add anything to it that would make it more than what it is now. ​ sM | Your social media presence contributes well to your ability to disseminate your artwork; what’s your advice for emerging artists looking to sell artwork to followers directly, instead of relying solely on the gallery system? BT ── For a while I only showed my works in galleries and it all felt a bit isolating, and the process of reaching a bigger audience was slow. I wanted to connect with more people from far away places as well, make my art more accessible, much more affordable. My advice is to use Instagram or any other social media platform in a way that benefits you and your art but doesn’t distract you from what’s important to you. I definitely think it’s good to put out new works as often as possible; support, interact and build genuine connections with people (artists and art lovers as well) and stay focused in your practice. I’m still learning—I don’t have all the answers but how I do things now allows me to be a full-time artist. It can be stressful but also very rewarding. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

#rhodesmustfall Can the toppling of statues help erect a more comprehensive collective memory? WORDS BY BEN MCHUTCHION | CANADA | ARTS & LETTERS FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Illustration By Brandon Hicks ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 Since the start of the #rhodesmustfall movement in 2015, statues commemorating historical figures complicit in slavery and colonialism have been taken down in various countries. Recent statue removals in Canada follow this trend, suggesting an underlying shift in how Canadians think about their country’s history. Narratives that celebrated colonialism have lost their once dominant position in the national consciousness, leading to historical debates in which statues play a central role. The sociological theory of collective memory is one tool for exploring the significance of statue removals. Collective memory posits that memory is not only held by individuals, but is also developed and held within social groups. Using this framework, the tradition of public memorial statues can be understood as a highly visible manifestation of collective memory. People with social or political power have often used statues in an attempt to permanently fix a preferred collective memory in the public square. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

In The Garden: Caroline Shaw Make Small Good Things WORDS BY ARLAN VRIENS | NEW YORK | MUSIC THE smART Ensemble NOV 14, 2022 | ISSUE 9 Caroline Shaw by Dayna Szyndrowski ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Caroline Shaw by Ella Mazur Orange - Nonesuch, 2019 The most remarkable thing about Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer Prize for Music isn’t the fact that she was the youngest to ever receive the honour; it’s that, since then, her artistic voice has only increased in creativity, innovation, and relevance. Whether working with Sō Percussion, the Brentano Quartet, the Yale Baroque Ensemble – and, at one time, Kanye ‘Ye’ West – her presence continues to radiate further and deeper into contemporary music circles. Likewise, her inspiration for compositions flows from unpredictable and organic sources; her works have employed oranges, clay pots, and Boris Kerner (German physicist) as subject matter. Joining smART Magazine from her plant-filled apartment in New York, Shaw outlines her big ambitions to celebrate the small, the everyday, and the overlooked. sM | Your music is often inspired by nature, but not the sprawling pastoral settings we often hear in classical music. How did you arrive at this concept? CS ── I used to have a small garden in Amherst, Massachusetts. It came with a really old compost pile. Of course, compost is just accumulated from things over years and years, so when you use it to plant something, sometimes you also get little volunteer plants that have been lying dormant there for a long time. Often that’s what composing music feels like. You’re trying to grow one thing, but all these other things come up. One of the things in my “compost pile” is my fondness for the intimacy of small objects. I like their everyday-ness, and I like the kind of humble quality of something like an orange. You see it every day in the grocery store, and it’s not a super expensive item. But it’s so beautiful and exquisite, and every single time I eat an orange I want to appreciate how complex it is — how all of its little components work together, and how delicate the membranes are. It’s fascinating, and it’s right there. I always say, “I want people to make small, good things.” That’s where I start. Sometimes I have the occasion to make something larger, but what I’m ultimately interested in is making something that’s very doable and manageable and lets people connect very closely. I’m interested in the kinds of nature that many people can relate to. Orange (Nonesuch, 2019) features luminous performances of Shaw’s work by the Grammy-award winning Attacca Quartet. Shaw’s evocative and buzzworthy “Entr’acte” opens the proceedings with a clever nod to Haydn. sM | How can this vision of nature connect with those living in urban environments? CS ── My apartment is in Hell’s Kitchen, NYC — right in the middle of everything. One wall here is totally dedicated to house plants, and in my old apartment down the street I kept a little fire escape garden. Generally, I find a deep joy in growing things in my apartment. This morning I sat for 20 minutes and just watched the sun come in and catch the plants. Access to nature, space, or even quiet, is a privilege, and some people have economic and geographic barriers, so I hope that we can learn to connect with and appreciate nature on any scale. The things happening on the scale of an orange or a house plant are also happening on a much broader scale in the wild. There are so many incredible, far-off places that I’ll never get to visit in my life, yet I think that I can experience vastness, grandeur, and majesty in small things. My writing process also pays attention to smaller parts of the whole: I like to think about how individual players in an ensemble feel when they play or sing something I’m writing. It’s been easier for me to establish trust and good relationships with smaller groups, like in chamber music. It’s amazing what you can do with just four people in a string quartet. Composed collaboratively with Sō Percussion, Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part (Nonesuch, 2021) foregrounds Shaw’s considerable talent as a vocalist, layered over fresh and surprising percussion landscapes. Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part - Nonesuch, 2021 sM | How did you come to write a piece about Boris Kerner’s theories on traffic flow? CS ── Firstly, I’ll just say that I am certainly not an expert on Boris Kerner or his three-phase traffic flow theories! I like going down deep internet rabbit holes with things as a way to write music. I’m incredibly inspired by non-musical things, because they introduce different shapes of ideas. At the time, I was reading about Boris Kerner, and drawing connections with things like the tension and release in Bach’s chromatic basslines. Sometimes, in Bach’s writing, the notes are all within the chord, but the bassline introduces maybe a raised third, which then might pivot to another surprising chord. So sometimes the harmony feels locked in place, but then suddenly it releases and goes somewhere else. I like the way those moments feel when I’m playing violin, where I notice how certain harmonies rub and blend in with others. Another internet rabbit hole led to another piece of mine, Jacques Duran on the Beach . Duran is a French scientist who’s interested in the flow properties of sand. He looks at how it can squeak and rub with friction, but sometimes also flow. So there, too, I came back to the idea of tension and release, or friction and flow. That’s how music feels to me in my body, and it’s a fun thing to think of. The titular work of Narrow Sea (Nonesuch, 2021) is a friendly experience; its text, drawn from the traditional Sacred Harp hymn collection, is buoyed by the intricate rhythm work of Sō Percussion and the incomparable voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw. Narrow Sea - Nonesuch, 2021 sM | What new compositional formats are you interested in exploring? CS ── I’m wary of becoming a kind of institutional music machinery that says yes to writing for all the usual classical subgenres. Right now I am writing a short opera which uses some electronic elements along with a full orchestra, which is exciting. But in terms of writing for symphony orchestra, for example, it’s been a great gift for me to get to do it, but I think there are many people who do it more enthusiastically. It’s important to let them have those opportunities. Lately, what I really wake up wanting to do every day, is to make four-minute songs where I’ve really shaped all the timbral and harmonic material myself. When I worked with Sō Percussion recently, I really enjoyed creating our shared aesthetic, but now I would love to do something where I can be a little bit of a control freak! sM | How has your approach to art been informed and shaped by the pandemic and socio-political events of the last two years? CS ── When I approach a project, I really want to feel that everyone involved has a voice and some creative agency. I’m keenly aware of when I should be the one saying something, or when maybe I’m not the right person and maybe shouldn’t take up that space in the room. As far as how I fold in my own political views or make space for the views that I think are important, I feel like I do that subtly in a lot of my work, though I don’t always talk about it. Maybe because of the pandemic or all of the socio-political upheaval in the U.S., right now I really like projects where we make something as a gift for people rather than something that’s important or large or complex. Writing music as a kind of gift feels a little bit closer to me now. I write music out of a place of love. I love it so much. ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Oksana Drachkovska From Bunny Rabbits to Bomb Shelters, an Illustrator Turns Activist WORDS BY EMILY PITTMAN | KYIV-MAASTRICHT | VISUAL ARTS STUDIO SESSIONS MAR 03, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Art by Oksana Drachkovska ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Art by Oksana Drachkovska Oksana Drachkovska Artists are some of the world’s most important activists, helping us to make meaning from human folly and tragedy. They help translate emotions into something tangible we can understand. Oksana Drachkovska built her art career working with publishing houses and magazines, earning notoriety and prizes for her illustration of children’s books. In 2020, her book The Jumpless Bunny and His Brave Mother won Best Literature for Children from ages six to eight in Ukraine’s Lviv Book Fair. On February 28, 2022, Oksana packed her bags to escape Lviv, not sure if or when she would ever return. She fled a home she knew and loved, leaving friends and family behind or scattered across neighbouring countries. Her journey led her to Barcelona, where she found refuge in the homes of fellow artists and art lovers. Five months later, Oksana continues to draw, but her subjects have changed dramatically. She is one of many artists and illustrators sharing perspectives on the war that is ravaging her home country. sM | How are you and other Ukrainian artists helping to raise awareness about the realities of what’s happening in Ukraine? OD ── After leaving Ukraine, I found myself in Poland. I was filled with guilt and helplessness during those first few days. I was afraid to read the news. It was strange for me to look at people around me who felt so safe, while a few kilometres away citizens do not know whether they will wake up in the morning or ever see their home again. I even had thoughts of going back, but I understood that was an illogical emotional reaction. When I came to my senses, I asked myself what I am best at and decided to help Ukraine with my art. At that time I didn’t have the strength to give an interview—I didn’t have the words. The only way to release my emotions was to paint what was inside me and what I saw happening in my country. I understood that my illustrations communicated a stronger message than I could ever transmit with words. My art doesn’t need translation and it’s not a photo; it’s a story that passes through me. The Ukrainian community of illustrators around the world began to unite and organise exhibitions about the war. I began to understand that I was also helping with my art—I had not been silenced. For the first time in a long time the world wanted to hear about Ukraine. The artists in my country have had a lot to say for a long time, and now doors have been opened and people are listening. And I think art is the best language to explain what’s happening. sM | What role has storytelling played in your art? OD ── Once I heard that the whole world is made of stories. That really touched me. I’ve contemplated for a long time on why stories are so important to me—it started when I was a child. I dreamt of being a writer, but when I learned to draw, it became harder to express myself with words. I realised that art is another language to be able to explain yourself with stories. That’s when I decided that art is what I wanted to dedicate my life to. I finished mural painting at the Academy of Arts in Lviv, but I went into illustration because I really wanted to tell stories. People mistakenly believe that stories only exist in literature. The more I observe different kinds of art, the more I realise that stories are everywhere. They’re in architecture, music, advertising, sculpture ... and it seems to me that when a storyteller knows how to tell stories truthfully and well, then it touches everyone, because stories are in all of us. Art by Oksana Drachkovska I started drawing about the war in Ukraine because it was difficult for me to speak about. I had very mixed emotions. Without knowing what I was going to draw, I just sat down and let the images flow through me. There is a discipline in psychotherapy that deals with the creation of stories. I tell stories to myself as a form of healing and treatment. My work is a way for me to escape the reality of what’s happening at home. When I work on other projects, I dive into other worlds. I don't know how I would have survived emotionally during the last five months if it weren’t for my art. sM | How has your creative process been affected by the war? OD ── Many of my current projects are related to the war. I never thought that I would draw tanks or rockets or soldiers; it was not my world at all. I also started to receive many new international customers since the onset of the war. At first this was frustrating. I found it upsetting that Ukrainian illustrators were not taken seriously. At the same time, I understand and accept that this is an opportunity for us to present ourselves and our country to the world. I’d like people to have a good impression of Ukrainians. Art by Oksana Drachkovska sM | How are you adjusting to your new circumstances in Barcelona? OD ── I have been in Barcelona for four months. Sometimes it feels like four years have passed. There have been so many moves, new acquaintances, people, and adventures. Right now I am starting to feel good about the city and I’d like to integrate more. Barcelona is inspiring because it is very open, multicultural, and creative. sM | What’s one thing you want to tell the world about Ukraine? OD ── The war still goes on, even if you hear less about it in the news. Please support us! ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture