BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition March 2019

ARTs
NAKED
AMBITION
Chloé Ziner and Jessica
Gabriel tap in to
the bare necessities in
Multiple Organism
By DAYNA MAHANNAH
“I think the practicality of the human
body is funny.”
That’s Chloé Ziner, who, along
with Jessica Gabriel, has unearthed
an oft-forgotten aspect of appreciating
the naked body as presented on
a public stage: humour. Behold their
award-winning show Multiple Organism.
“The female form is seen as this
elusive, magical, beautiful, pure
thing,” says Gabriel. “That’s not what’s
going on in our show.”
The two performers make up the
entirety of their shadow puppetry
company, Mind of a Snail, which has
produced numerous shows to high
acclaim. The duo takes on a multitude
of other projects, including collaborations,
installations, and workshops.
Gabriel and Ziner bonded over a
shared creative background when
they met 16 years ago – Gabriel has a
painting degree and Ziner spent years
playing in punk bands in her hometown
of Courtenay, BC.
This is not nudity for
MULTIPLE
Later on, they honed their
nudity’s sake, however.
ORGANISM
on-stage skills at Vancouver’s
clowning school,
incredibly personal and
Multiple Organism is an
March 19-39
Culture Lab
Fantastic Space. Ziner explains
the ethos of clownrived
from Ziner and Ga-
vulnerable concept de-
Tix, $28: thecultch.com
ing as “being present,
briel’s own lived experiences.
Gabriel works as a life drawing
connecting with your audience and
being fully authentic as a performer.”
From this concoction of fine arts, and drawing groups around the Great-
model for a handful of art institutions
music, and clowning emerged their er Vancouver area, which she’s done
current performance art: projection for the past 12 years.
puppetry.
“During the breaks I walk around
Their shows use overhead projectors
to create a world with manipuditions
of my body,” Gabriel shares.
the room and see all the different renlated
layers of scene and character, “It’s surreal! [Seeing] who drew pubic
content and symbolism. But in Multiple
Organism – for audiences 18+ drew my boobs super large when, in
hair, or if they left my legs hairy… who
– “we’re playing a little bit with some reality, I have small breasts.” The show
taboos,” admits Ziner. “In the live draws on these visceral encounters
video portion, my mouth [is projected]
onto Jessica’s nude torso and her others and bounces between the pub-
with how her body is perceived by
boobs are the eyes.” The surrealist mix lic and the private, the latter of which
of puppetry and the zoetic along with is captured in a bathroom setting on
the non-linear storytelling and formplay
are perhaps why they describe “The magic of puppetry is project-
stage.
the show as a “psychedelic dream” or ing [animation] onto what are usually
inanimate objects,” says Ziner. “visual poem.”
“We
make assumptions about who those
objects are based on how we perceive
them.” This is not far from how humans
interact, as illustrated in Gabriel’s
experience as a life drawing model.
Ziner and Gabriel’s combined puppet
character asks questions about gender
and the body, and how they are seen
and not seen. “When we build a show
we always look at the metaphor – why
are we using puppetry for this?” Ziner
continues. Multiple Organism uses
projection literally and figuratively
to explore how meaning is projected
onto bodies, all while having a laugh.
The first run of this show couldn’t
have been more timely. It ended two
weeks prior to the Harvey Weinstein
exposé in 2017 and the #MeToo wave
that followed. A year and a half (and
many awards) later, they continue to
crush expectations about what nudity,
the body, gender, and even puppetry
entail. “Expectations are dangerous,”
Gabriel says. “We’re trying to tickle
[the audience].”
Ziner chimes in, “right in the diaphragm.”
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MARCH 2019 BEATROUTE 41