Category: Activism

Tiny Home (2015)

(2015) Center on Contemporary Art Un[contained] Residency, Seattle

 

I had recently been in the Bay Area performing and was struck by the tiny movable homes taking up no more than a parking space, I saw lining the streets in West Oakland. Upon learning I had been awarded this residency, I felt compelled to explore these movable tiny houses for myself, as I had not seen anything of this sort in the Northwest despite rampant homlessness. 
Using salvaged wood in tandem with other recycled/donated resources, I created a portable living space. By painting the exterior of the structure I aimed to make this home command the attention of those who would rather choose to ignore the state of homelessness and displacement in our area. The home acts as a billboard, stating in the most matter of fact way the basic necessity of having a roof over one’s head. Voicing through words the needed legislative action of RENT CONTROL to help create sensible affordable homes for those in need.
I can’t help but notice the increase in the past ten years of people living on the streets in Seattle, especially in the last three years. Can this temporary home be a sense of pride for the inhabitant? Could this action open the eyes of developers?

 

Addressing An Issue

Listen (2015) film

(2015) Short film (Related project with Mother Film and Performance) 

 

Listen is meant to show the feeling of isolation that can be felt when dealing with a loved one’s mental illness. 
Listen is part of an ongoing investigation in creating work for my schizophrenic mother. Footage from Listen has been meshed with footage from the 2013 performance Mother for you I made this.

 

Collaborators credits:
Filmed by Ryan Adams, Jacob Rosen and Doug Arney. 
Sound by Paurl Walsh. 
Edited by Doug Arney. 
Concept and performance by Ezra Dickinson. 

 

Screenings:
(2016) Film Installation in exhibition The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human. ArtEast, Issaquah WA.
(2015) Film Installation. The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition, City Hall, Seattle WA (premiere)

 

Dinosaurs And Sea Hawks (2014) film

(2014) Video, short film.

 

Sleeping under a bridge is a man and his dinosaur mask. Waking up, he walks into the heart of the city and puts on his mask. A friend, a stranger, a kindred soul emerges and the mask is passed off and traded. The man watches and then walks away with a Sea Hawks hat.
Inspired by creating performance gifts for my schizophrenic mother Dinosaurs and Sea Hawks is another story in my ongoing performance works. The dinosaur mask is intended as a reminder of childhood and quite literally a mask to hide from the harsh reality of the world through my mother’s eyes. 
Directed, filmed and edited by Linas Phillips. 
Written and acted in by Ezra Dickinson. 

Featuring Melinda Fraizer.

 

Screenings:
(2015) In Flight Film Stream, Alaska Airlines. 
(2014) Film Screening, Seattle International Film Festival, Seattle WA 
(2014) Film Screening, Milwaukee Film Festival, Milwaukee WI 
(2014) Film Screening, AMFEST, Moscow Russia
(2014) Film Screening, Next dance Cinema, Seattle WA
(2014) Film Screening, Jaipur International Film Festival, Jaipur India 
(2014) Film Screening, Mumbai Shorts International Film Festival, Mumbai India 
(2014) Film Screening, Shorts Premier, Chile

Mother Quilt (2013)

(2013) quilt created for the performance of Mother for you I made this.

 

Sourcing ideas and imagery from my childhood of wanting to be able to wrap myself in my mother’s arms turned into creating a portrait of my mother and sewing that into a quilt that I could wrap myself in. This was the first quilt I have ever made, but was definitely not my last. I used four 3’x5’ tiled sections of photographic fabric to create this 5’x7’ portrait of my mother Kathryn. 
 

Photo Anthony Rigano

Velocity Bash, Photo Jim Colman

Mother for you I made this (2013) film

(2013) Film (related to Mother… Performance)

 

Stand alone video documentation from the performance and audience experience of Mother for you I made this (2013)
Fillmed by Ryan Adams and Jocob Rosen. Edited by Ryan Adams. 

 

(2019) Film screening with post-screening Q&A, radio interview. North Star Ballet, Fairbanks AK
(2015) Film screening, ArtEast, Issaquah WA
(2015) Film screening. TEDX Adventure, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA
(2014) Cornishʼs Our Creative Society, Seattle, WA
(2014) TEDX Rainier, Macaw Hall, Seattle WA
(2014) Film Screening, Fidalgo DanceWorks, Anacortes, WA

Mother for you I made this (2013)

(2013) Performance Premiere

 

Part performance and part activism, Mother for you I made this is aimed at activating a conversation about the failed mental health care system in America through memories of my childhood as I lived with and unknowingly cared for my schizophrenic mother. This hour-long solo is built from a series of performances I made as gifts for my mother over a seven year period.
Audiences were guided through forgotten public spaces by ushers and given a personal audio sound score composed by Paurl Walsh. Weaving conversations between myself and my mother with sounds from the actual landscape.
Mother for you I made this was commissioned and produced through Velocity Dance Center‘s Made in Seattle dance development program with support from 4Culture, ArtsFund, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

 

Collaborator credits: 
Paurl Walsh Sound/composition. 
Christopher Stewart Sound Tech. 
Christian Swacker Stage manager. 
Kim Lusk Tech Director.

Mother TEDX Rainer:

Tonya Lockyer + Ezra Dickinson TEDX Talk Macaw Hall 2014

Gifts for my mother, interview with Ezra at TEDX

Mother press reviews:

Seattle Dances: Ezra Dickinson Quietly Provokes

Seattle Star: The Art of Changing How We Talk About Mental Disorders

Seattle Times: Haunting look at mental illness, laid bare on the streets

City Arts: Ezra Dickinson Triumph and Tribute

The 12th Avenue Project: EZRA DICKINSON DANCES A DUET WITH SEATTLE

The Stranger: No Two Performances Will Be the Same

Mother press quotes:

Seattle Dance Annual: Reviewers recall highlights of 2013

Mother press preview/interview links:

The Stranger: Q&A with Ezra Dickinson
Seattle Met: A Fiendish Conversation with Ezra Dickinson
Kiro Radio: In “Mother For You I Made This,” a Seattle Dancer Finds a Stage in the Streets
KUOW Interview: Weekday & Weekday With Steve Scher (Interview starts at 38:30)
Seattle Channel: Art Zone with Nancy Guppy (Interview starts at 6:30)

Mother press photo essay of performance:

City Arts: Ezra Dickinson Takes to the Streets with an Emotional Tribute to His Mother

 

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Photo Dan Hawkins

Photo Tim Summers

Photo Dan Hawkins

Mother performance excerpts:

Pacific Northwest Performance Platform. APAP, Gibney Dance, NYC. (2019)
For this showcase I chose to perform the section from “Mother” where I wrap a 150’ foot block printed cloth poem, pulled from my stomach around a grove of trees, in this showing I asked audience members to stand onstage in place of trees as I wrapped the length of the poem around and in between them. I was quite pleased with the result, as the length of the cloth poem filled the stage to complete capacity and used the space and the audience in a way that no other performers did during the showing.
Velocity Bash. Velocity Dance Center, Seattle WA (2019)

 

Pacific Northwest Performance Platform. APAP, Gibney Dance, NYC. (2018) 
The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition. City hall, Seattle WA (2015)

 

The Incredible Intensity of Just Being Human exhibition. Highline College, Dem Moines WA (2015)

TEDX Rainier. Macaw Hall, Seattle WA (2014)
“My”. Art Share. Centennial Hall, Sitka AK (2005)
“My”. Cornish Benefit Concert. Poncho Theatre, Seattle WA (2005)
“My”. 12 Minutes Max. On The Boards, Seattle WA (2005)

USA Flag/pool (2013)

(2013) spray paint set piece 

 

Commissioned by Spectrum Dance Theatre and Donald Byrd for his work A CRUEL NEW WORLD/the new normal. I had never drawn or painted the American flag before this and probably never will after. I was happy that when I did find myself creating this set piece, it was to help represent America in performance for what it is, a land known for taking advantage of the less fortunate. I greatly respect Donald for his activism through dance and performance, it was a privilege to create this work for him.

 

Mother Mask (2012)

(2012) mask created for Mother for you I made this performance.

 

I only have a few images of my mother taken within the last ten years. When I imagined creating a mask of my mother I found myself feeling lucky to have this image as my only and best photo. I have the color original. In a progression of performative ideas, I xeroxed the color into only black and white. My first use of the xerox’d photo of my mother was for a Ten Tiny performance, for this performance I made a dress out of 80 copies of my mother’s face.
For this mother mask, I gave myself the task of finding a store bought mask that had the same expression as my mother in this photo. Taking multiple copies I began to recreate my mother’s face overlaid on the preexisting mask (of Hillary Clinton).
My mother has a healthy fear of the government that is amplified by her imbalance. I thought it was a poetic gesture with a mother’s son portraying her face skin deep over Hillary, walking the streets searching for the last few ferries among the cement of the big city.

 

Photo Anthony Rigano

Photo Tim Summers

Mother Printed Poem (2012)

(2012) Text block printed on muslin, created for Mother for you I made this performance.

 

In developing my route for the performance of Mother for you I made this, I found myself gravitating towards the Federal Court House because I felt its backdrop during the performance could stand in as a symbol for the machine of America that forgets so many of its parts. I wanted to write a poem speaking to a courtroom and its judge: an only child pleading with the court/country’s constituents to see the forgotten and vulnerable, an only child pleading for the rights of his institutionalised mother. In my short film Listen I read this poem to an empty counsel chamber in Seattle’s City Hall. 

 

Photo Nate Watters

To create this work I first had to measure the length between a desirable grove of trees located in the courtyard of the Court House. Having the exact distances between each tree, I started to create the layout of each word and each sentence. I had to take into consideration the direction that the poem would unfurl from my belly and how the audience was going to be viewing this work as I wrapped this poem through the trees. Once I had these steps completed this allowed me to determine the total length that was going to be needed to both complete the poem and also begin sewing the full length of muslin together. In total this poem is a hundred and fifty feet long. I hand printed each letter of each word, meticulously measuring each sentence so that it fell in the middle of its allotted length. I created a special undershirt that had a built compartment that housed and allowed for the poem to look as though it was being pulled from my belly. When the poem was wrapped in the trees it created a five pointed star, I think of this as not a nod to the stars on the American flag but a ritual space delineation each and every time I completed the task of wrapping. I am truly proud of this particular performance element. I feel this work digs deep to speak truth to power, and for my love of my mother. (from Mother for you I made this performance)

 

Photo Nate Watters

Photo Nate Watters

Photo Nate Watters

Pride Parade Floats (2009-12)

(2009-12) Painting

 

I have had the pleasure of helping design and create four Seattle Pride Parade floats over the years. I very much enjoy how the collective power of a team can make big projects and ideas come to life really fast. These have been some of the most fun creative projects I have done, the delirium of building/painting all week and then all night before the day of the parade. Painting right up to the last moment as we are lining up for the parade, then partying our butts off during the parade is the best! To top it off, our first three floats won people’s choice award for Best Float. 

 

Gaywatch (2009)

 

Gay team (2010)

 

Ass Cream Truck (2011)

 

Gay Wettings (2012)