Bessie Wapp
Pandora’s Jukebox

Residency:      1 – 30 December 2021

Artist Talk:      19 January 2022, 4:00 – 5:00 PM PST (Zoom) Register to attend via EventBrite.

Exhibition:       14 – 30 January 2022
Hosted Events:  Fridays – Saturdays, 5:00 – 6:30 PM & Sunday Matinees, 2:00 – 3:30 PM 
(no event on Saturday, January 15, 2022)
Register to attend via EventBrite links below. All events held via Zoom.

Oxygen Art Centre is pleased to announce local musician and theatre artist, Bessie Wapp, to their Artist in Residence program for the month of December. The residency will be followed by a series of participatory performance events and an online artist talk throughout the month of January.

The title of the project, Pandora’s Jukebox is derived from Wapp’s interest in the Greek myth of Pandora, and her desire to transform the fate of this heroine by empowering her as a healer through this project.

As the ancient myth goes, Pandora is given a gift from Zeus, in the form of a small jar or box. She is instructed by Zeus to deliver this gift to her husband, Epimetheus, and warned not to open the box. Curious as to the contents of the gift, she defies Zeus’s orders and opens the box. The open box immediately unleashes physical and emotional troubles for humankind. In the end, only one emotion remains in the box, that of Hope. It is this kernel of human nature that Wapp seeks to embody in the work of the project, and to offer her community solace in these difficult times.

Wapp will daringly open the gifted box, or jukebox in this case, and set to work transforming the tragedy of the myth into one of good fortune through the healing power of music and summoning of hope.

Inspiration for Pandora’s Jukebox came to Wapp in comparing the similarities of the myth to the challenging circumstances of today’s world with the realities of the climate crisis and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Wapp says that this shaped her decision to use her residency time to offer some kind of consolation and hope for her community.

Wapp will use her December residency to experiment with an audio looper. A new instrument to Wapp, a looper station is an electronic device used by musicians to record musical performances, and then play these recordings back in real time. The musician can create loops of sound that layer the output adding texture and complexity to the music.

The recording and looping of pieces will allow Wapp to facilitate participatory sing-a-longs and conversational moments during the exhibition. Wapp is excited and grateful for the opportunity this residency affords to learn this new skill, as well as, to have a designated studio space to make music. She will also be working on an installation to alter the gallery into a soft, theatrical environment in which to set this new work.

Following the residency, Wapp will stage and host a series of online public events via Zoom throughout the month of January. These events will centre on the musical expression of what is most forefront in the hearts and minds of those present. Wapp will lead audiences in a participatory process of conversation and engagement aimed to elicit and gather raw material in the form of words, poems, and drawings, which she will then incorporate into improvised, participatory musical compositions created live, in the moment.

In each online public event, Wapp will challenge herself to work intuitively and spontaneously with her audience in the creation of new live music. For Wapp, this project brings a culmination of her experience and skill in improvisation, choir direction, theatrical design and community engaged art practice together.

Those interested in participating in the hosted events, held on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays will need to register via the EventBrite links, 24-hours prior to the event.

The residency ran from December 1st to December 30th, 2021. The exhibition will open on January 14th and run until January 30th, 2021.

The public is invited to register online through EventBrite for all the events. An online artist talk will be held on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 4:00 PM PST (Zoom). The online participatory performance events will be offered on Friday and Saturday evenings from 5:00 – 6:30 PM with a matinee on Sundays from 2:00 – 3:30 PM.

Register to attend any of the following the online hosted events:

14 January 2022, 5:00 – 6:30 PM PST *CANCELLED*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238614100197

16 January 2022, 2:00 – 3:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238622705937

21 January 2022, 5:00 – 6:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238629817207

22 January 2022, 5:00 – 6:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238635684757

23 January 2022, 2:00 – 3:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238638222347

28 January 2022, 5:00 – 6:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238643367737

29 January 2022, 5:00 – 6:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238646687667

30 January 2022, 2:00 – 3:30 PM PST *SOLD OUT*

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/pandoras-jukebox-participatory-event-tickets-238649435887

Contact info@oxygenartcentre.org to be added to a wait list

Artist Bio:

Bessie Wapp was born in New York City and raised in the Kootenays. She is a musician, theatre-maker and educator. Wapp’s music practice involves voice, accordion, hand percussion and piano. She has performed in Europe and throughout North America. Touring highlights include Festival D’ete (Montreal), Lincoln Centre (NYC) and Zagreb Dance Week (Croatia). She has studied the arts at Emily Carr College of Art And Design, Vancouver Community College and Selkirk College’s Contemporary Music Program. While living in Vancouver, she worked with innovative and multi-disciplinary groups such as Mortal Coil, Zeellia, Public Dreams, Electric Company, Radix, Ruby Slippers, Touchstones, Vancouver Moving Centre and Gamelan Madu Sari. In 2006, she relocated to Nelson where she co-founded Twin Fish Theatre. Through this company she developed an autobiographical body of work sourcing material and stories from her ancestry and family life. Hello, I must be going, Loco Phantasmo and Letters from Lithuania are part of this series. She has cultivated music projects including Klezmeridian, Bessie and the Black Eddies, and Oxygen Orkestar. Her interest in expressive arts programs, arts education and community-engaged projects has brought her in to creative and often collaborative contact with people of all ages. Wapp teaches for the Oxygen Art Centre and heads up the Blue House Choir. In 2015 Wapp was named Nelson’s Cultural Ambassador.