Revolution Revolution

Revolution Revolution is performance and video work by Gillian Dykeman that activates the latent radical potential of the human energy amassed through engaging fitness. Operating as a home stationary bike workout, Revolution Revolution delivers fitness instruction in tandem with revolutionary rhetoric. Utopia is latent within the everyday, so how do we move from sliding over its radical possibilities and instead find a way to activate it? What is the energy of revolution? How do we better engineer our energetic outputs to formulate collective ways of being out of a culture that glorifies individualism …to radically reimagine what it is we’re doing with our lives?  Our life-force? Our love? See more on Vimeo and HERE

Revolution Revolution has been presented over dozen times as either a exercise-bike or aerobics based performance both live and as video installations. The performances include fitness instruction and revolutionary rhetoric, usually tailored to a given location or exhibition theme. Below is the documentation from the development and presentation of this work at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

I did an independent residency in November and December of 2017 at the Banff Centre, where I developed Revolution Revolution work substantially. I made a large backdrop painting 7′ x 12′ for the video version of this work.  It’s a watercolour on canvas. At this time, the major focus of my revolutionary rhetoric was on the needs of contemporary workers; the Precariat in particular.

Thanks again to artsnb.

*Number subject to depending on friends willingness to participate / actually check their facebook messages.

REVOLUTION REVOLUTION harnesses the amazing energies generated by a roomful of people focusing together on a demanding task. This performance activates the latent radical potential of the human energy amassed through engaging fitness. Operating as a stationary bike workout and fitness movement (complete with its own posters, costumes, and YouTube home fitness videos), Revolution Revolution delivers fitness instruction in tandem with revolutionary rhetoric. Utopia is latent within the everyday, so how do we move from sliding over its radical possibilities and instead find a way to activate it? What is the energy of revolution? How do we better engineer our energetic outputs to formulate collective ways of being out of a culture that glorifies individualism …to radically reimagine what it is we’re doing with our lives?  Our life-force? Our love? 

 Thanks so much to artsnb for supporting this new project.

I had an exhibition of this work at Saint Mary’s University Gallery in the summer of 2017. It was shown in tandem with AgitProp: Soviet Propaganda 1905-1945; an exhibition of Soviet Poster Art.

Dispatches from the Future Feminist Utopia is a work revisiting major earthworks and recasting them as abandoned alien technology. Feminists in the future have appropriated these devices (the earthworks) to bring forth the feminist utopia.The narrative voice (spoken as the moon) is polyvocal and decentred through multiple genders and accents. This work – an installation of sculptures and watercolour schematic drawings, and videos – describe how to activate the earthwork devices to bring on the feminist utopia now. The works compel the dispatch recipients to find their own iteration of this possibility.

Dispatches from the Feminist Utopian Future from Gillian Dykeman on Vimeo.

Gillian Dykeman, C.E.O. of Human Services Inc. pitched ideas for creative office space design, integrating creativity into the workplace, and increasing worker efficiency at the DNA Artspace opening on November 29, 2013.

I spoke at length about these ideas with the Other Business Collective in the fall of 2012.

Human Services Inc. undertakes creative office space design as a means of engaging with corporate culture. This project opened at the DNA Artpsace in London, ON for November 29, 2013 as part of “No Boys With Frogs”. The research, development and production of this work has been generously funded by a Creation Grant from ArtsNB. An accompanying performance by the C.E.O. of Human Services Inc. (me) performed and pitched the company’s philosophy at the opening of this show.

The desire to make a workplace cool in appearance functions much the same way as all-too-familiar green-washing: the appearance of changing is allowed to stand in for making actual long-term and fundamental changes to power structures and systems.

Capitalism is genius at allowing people to harm each other, and institutional distances (per Arendt’s thoughts on the banality of evil) allow human beings to do great violence to other human beings and the planet while sitting comfortably at their desk in their benign office. How much can coolness and design mask these machinations?

I’m co-hosting a contemporary art radio show. Woo!

^ that’s a link above this text.

Pierogi Night is a radio show Jared Peters and I broadcast and record at CFMH, the local campus radio station. The blog has links to mp3 files as well as images to accompany the individual episodes. It’s Fun!