A short interview with artist Nava Waxman whose creative research is on view in the Lab’s PlaySpace from August 9 to 23, 2024.

Thank you for sharing your art with the public! How was it creating in the space?

I wasn’t sure what to expect and how it would unfold, but I felt I was guided by the possibility of bringing some photographic images that communicate with the Lab, the community, and the physical space as a shipping container, which I felt is such a liminal and transitory space. And I also wanted to think about how it resonates with our current time.

What were some ideas you were exploring? 

My work often occurs in the performative space between gesture and image, which produces various archival records. But I’m also reflecting on being and time and the lived experience of in-between, and the experience where time is out of joint.

I think of this photographic installation as a space that brings to life past and present experiences of transitioning, shifting, liminality, and communal passage, between now and the beginning of the pandemic back in 2020, when we had the Luminato residency, when we all went through the threshold of isolation.

Facilitating creative workshops for newcomers (immigrants and refugees), and then later, mentoring and facilitating workshops for Indigenous youth, was all incredibly nourishing and special, despite all of us going through this global passage, it was a space-making for community assembly and gesture of care.

A few nights before, Helen had also shared a little sketch of how she had imagined my work might manifest in the space. It felt like a non-verbal exchange of ideas that started before my arrival and kept unfolding when we met in space.

Have your ideas changed in some way since installing and experimenting in the space?

I was thinking on my way home that it’s interesting and activating to consider that the installation can be experienced from outside even if it’s closed. The outside enters the inside between reflection and “refraction” and between distance and hospitality.

Refraction of inside and outside, and refraction of image. The photographic repetitions are keyframe still images captured with a digital camera to mediate the refraction of gestures at the threshold of movement, light, and image. Although I was initially attuned to the transitory qualities of the gallery space as a transitional object (shipping container), I later noticed the inside and outside of the space. Thinking beyond this PlaySpace residency, the activities inside coincide with those outside, that volatile dwelling space that caught my attention.

Anything you want to say about what else, or what’s next?

I look forward to spending time in the lab next week and playing with ideas and performative experiments. Hopefully, this process will manifest into a live performance on August 23rd!

Check the Events page and our Instagram feed for updates on Nava’s PlaySpace residency and performance.