Evann Siebens
Evann Siebens is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada while her lens-based practice negotiates the human body as an archival site and the politics of the female gaze.
The visual transgressions of dance media, that on the surface seem so simple and pleasing, are an entry point for feminists and activists to have their say, an allowance for the complexity of politics, enabled by the moving body through time and space.”[5] Siebens is represented by Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver.
[15][16] In 2021, Siebens, along with Keith Doyle, collaborated with nearly 50 local dancers, visual artists and activists to create Pedestrian Protest, a site-specific installation commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery.
[17] The project included 24 media performances that referenced a historical or recent protest and explored how the moving body, whether in solitude or en masse, can become a political act.
W-E-L-C-O-M-E to PoCo, which reflects and highlights the welcoming spirit of the community of Port Coquitlam, featured images of local residents of diverse ages and cultural backgrounds in front of iconic sites and landmarks.
[23] In 2018 Siebens collaborated again with Keith Doyle to create Plus TheCo, Minus Helen Goodwin, a sculptural 20 foot metal geodesic dome, with a dancefilm in three parts at the Belkin Gallery in Vancouver.
Commissioned by Lorna Brown, curator at the Belkin Gallery, the piece explores the overlooked Canadian female choreographer Helen Goodwin, a founding member of Intermedia in the 1960s as well as TheCo, a dance troupe based in Vancouver, B.C.
[24] Siebens worked with choreographers James Gnam and Vanessa Goodman, visual artist Anne Ngan and several Vancouver based contemporary dancers to realize the pieces.
They are featured in locations from across the Lower Mainland of Vancouver, many of them unceded traditional territories of First Nations peoples such as the Coast Salish, the Squamish, the Tsleil-Waututh and the Musqueam.
"[26] Siebens' 2018 film time reversal symmetry was part of a collaboration between artists and scientists at TRIUMF: Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics.
The viewer is asked to question who is the performer and who is the maker as the artist steps into the frame holding a 16mm camera and ‘shoots’ the solos, duets and trios—improving as much as the dancers.
IMPROV toured to Paris & Skopje, Macedonia in 2009; the Art Gallery of Calgary in 2007; Mediated Bodies in Dublin, Ireland in 2007; Screendance, American Dance Festival, Durham in 2006; Cinedans – Interactive Dance Film at Mediamatic, Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 2006; Goethe Institute & Deutsches Tanz Archive in Krakow, Poland in 2006; Monkey Town Screening in Brooklyn, New York in 2006 and DanceLenz Indian Film Festival in Delhi, India in 2006.
