Collaboration runs deep for creative couple

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This article was published 21/09/2018 (2773 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With an open mind, you never know where an idea might take you.

That philosophy runs through both the individual and collaborative works included in Jordan Miller and Dave Swiecicki’s new art exhibition #undertheinfluence, which opens at the cre8ery (125 Adelaide St.) on Sept. 27.

“The finished pieces are all from this year,” explained Miller, who holds a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Manitoba and is executive director of the cre8ery. “There are 61 art pieces, and the video project.”

The collaborative video project, which demanded the most of Swiecicki’s time over the past three months, began as a whim.

“We went to Gimli for a little three-day vacation together,” recalled Miller. “The night before Dave said he was going to bring his video camera, and we were going to do a video on the beach. I was like, ‘Hey, this is supposed to be a vacation!’”

“My idea was to bring some video gear out to Gimli in case we wanted to mess around, I didn’t want to wish after the fact that I’d brought it,” explained Swiecicki, who grew up in North Kildonan and attended River East Collegiate. “We went out to the beach one evening, Jordan came up with this concept and we just kept building it.”

The one-off shoot turned into a three-day shoot at Gimli, Winnipeg Beach, and Birds Hill Provincial Park, followed by countless hours in the studio editing, and a week at Hillside Beach recording the soundtrack.

“I was working on the music with headphones on at like three in the morning when everyone else was sleeping,” said Swiecicki, a self-taught photographer and musician who was keyboardist and guitar player for the Winnipeg hard rock outfit Jet Set Satellite. “It was awesome. There were no distractions. I could just submerse myself in it.”

The result is Holding On, an evocative, beautifully shot 10-minute experimental short film, that ties a number of the individual pieces in the exhibition together.

“What I was doing throughout the video connected to how I was feeling,” said Miller, who stars in the film. “There’s a scene where I’m breaking free, a discovery scene, a renewal and rejuvenation scene. Every time I watch it, I find connections.”

Holding On also captured a number of serendipitous moments, including a visit from a friendly red fox and a UFO.

“There was this huge ball of light,” Swiecicki said. “It wasn’t a flare, it wasn’t Saturn, it wasn’t Mars. To this day, I don’t know what it was. So that’s in the video, just by accident!”

“That’s partly why we called it #undertheinfluence,” Miller said. “Dave’s always capturing something in that moment, sort of like how I’m producing art in the moment.”

While the 61 paintings, photographs, and image transfers Miller and Swiecicki created for the show are for sale, Holding On is not. However, the couple will be taking donations at the show, to cover both the costs of producing the film and to help with Miller’s costly FreeStyle Libre Glucose Monitoring system that she uses to treat Type 1 diabetes (which is not covered by Manitoba Health).

“I feel so much better (using it),” Miller said. “I have so much more energy.”

A public reception for #undertheinfluence will be held with Miller and Swiecicki in attendance on Thurs., Sept. 27 from 7 to 10 p.m. at cre8ery gallery.

The show runs Sept. 28 through to Oct. 9, with the gallery opens Tuesday to Friday, from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m.  

For more information, visit www.cre8ery.com/portfolio/under-the-influence

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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