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|| Patrick Blenkarn is an artist working at the intersection of performance, game design, and visual art. His research-based practice revolves around the themes of language, labour, and economy, with projects ranging in form from video games and card games to stage plays and books.

His work and collaborations have been featured in performance festivals, galleries, museums, and film festivals, including Festival TransAmériques (Montréal), PuSh International Performing Arts Festival (Vancouver), Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin), Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires, the Humboldt Forum (Berlin), Festival of Live Digital Art (Kingston), STAGES Festival (Halifax), Banff Centre for the Arts, Risk/Reward (Portland), SummerWorks (Toronto), rEvolver (Vancouver), RISER Projects (Toronto), and the Festival of Recorded Movement (Vancouver). In 2020, he was nominated for Best Projection Design at Toronto’s Dora Awards. In 2022, his work with Milton Lim, asses.masses, received a National Creation Fund investment from the National Arts Centre of Canada.

Patrick has frequently been an artist in residence at galleries and theatres around the world, including USC Games (Los Angeles), The Arctic Circle (Svalbard), the Spitsbergen Artist Center (Svalbard), GlogauAIR (Berlin), Fonderie Darling (Montreal), Malaspina Printmakers (Vancouver), Skaftfell Center for Visual Art (Iceland), VIVO Media Arts (Vancouver), and The Theatre Centre (Toronto).

Patrick is also the co-founder of and a key archivist for videocan, Canada’s video archive of performance documentation. He has a degree in philosophy, theatre, and film from the University of King's College and an MFA from Simon Fraser University. His writings on the politics of theatre have been published in Performance Matters, Theatre Research in Canada, GUTS, SpiderWebShow, and Canadian Theatre Review.

He is based out of Vancouver and Los Angeles.


SELECTED WORKS



CALENDAR

tbd

TBD: Publication: culturecapital:dialogues, Playwrights Canada Press

_2025

June 10-12: 2021, TBA

June 4-7: 2021, TBA

May 19-30: dam.nation, The Theatre Centre

Apr 12-13, asses.masses, Battersea Arts Centre, London

Apr 5, asses.masses, TBA

Feb 15-16, asses.masses, UMS (University of Michigan), Ann Abor

Feb 2: asses.masses, TBA

Jan 24-26: Humboldting!, Humboldt Forum, Berlin

Jan 12: asses.masses, Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster

_2024

Nov 17: asses.masses, Campania Teatro Festival, Salerno

Nov 10: asses.masses, Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster

Oct 26: asses.masses, Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin

Oct 2024 - January 2025: Residency: Humboldt Forum, Berlin

Aug 4-17: 2021 development residency, New York City

Jul 11-23: Development residency, London

Jun 18+20: asses.masses, Inteatro Festival, Ancona

Jun: Article: “If Not Democratic”, Canadian Theatre Review Special Issue on Participatory Performance

Jun 7: culturecapital:barcelona, Teatre Lliure, Barcelona

May 28: Artist Talk: “Digital Puppetry”, Festival TransAmériques, Montréal

May 27: Artist Talk: Eka shakuelem/Festival TransAmériques, Montréal

May 25 + Jun 1: asses.masses, Festival TransAmériques, Montréal

May 18-19: asses.masses, Mayfest, Bristol

May 17: Artist Talk: Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol

Apr 13-20: Residency: CAHOOTS, mia & eric, Creston

Jan 30: Podcast Interview: “Ass Power”, Below The Radar, Vancouver

Jan 30: Artist Talk, School for the Contemporary Arts, SFU, Vancouver

Jan 25: Article: “The good and the bad (and everything in between)”, Intermission Magazine

Jan 25: Artist Talk: “Democracy and Theatre”, PuSh Industry Series, Vancouver

Jan 22-24: Pure Research Presentations, Nightswimming, Toronto

Jan 21: Serious Play: A Super Radical Game-a-thon, Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver

Jan 20, 27 + Feb 3: asses.masses, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver

Jan 11-20: 2021, Tarragon Greenhouse Festival, Toronto

_2023

Dec 5: Presentation, Full Indie, Vancouver

Sep 22-24: asses.masses, The Theatre Centre, Toronto

Sep 21: Master class, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto

Sep 20: Master class, University of Toronto BMO Lab, Toronto

Sep 12-16: FARCE, Zones Théâtrales, Ottawa

Sep 8: Master class, Cátedra Bergman, UNAM, Mexico City

Sep 6+9: asses.masses, Festival Internacional de Teatro Universitario, UNAM, Mexico City

Aug 1 - Jan 2024: Residency: Tarragon Greenhouse with Cole Lewis, Toronto

Aug 1 - Jan 2024: Residency: Nightswimming Pure Research with Cole Lewis, Toronto

Jul 10-29: Residency: Devised Performance Lab with Montserrat Videla Samper, Dubrovnik/Hvar

Jun 9: asses.masses, STAGES, Halifax

Jun 8: asses.masses, FOLDA, Kingston

May 5-31: Residency: Spitsbergen Artists Center, with Laure Winants, Longyearbyen, Svalbard

Apr 17 - May 4: Residency: The Arctic Circle, with Laure Winants, Longyearbyen, Svalbard

Mar 28 - Apr 11: Residency: with Milton Lim, São Paulo

Mar 16-27: Residency: with Milton Lim, Recife

Mar 5-15: Residency: with Milton Lim, Buenos Aires

Mar 2-4: asses.masses, Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA), Buenos Aires

_2022

Nov 18: Workshop: culturecapital, Queen’s University, Kingston

Sep 8 - Oct 8: Residency: Kolaj Institute, Montreal/Online

Aug 15-28: New project development with Guilty by Association, Center for Collaborative Arts and Media, Yale University, New Haven

Jun 5-11: Residency: Humboldting!, Humboldt Forum, Berlin

June 4: Co-authored essay with Milton Lim in Nancy Tam’s …wreckage upon wreckage… digital artist book

May 12-14: asses.masses, Hybrid by Design, The Theatre Centre, Toronto

Apr 7-9: Panel Talk/Participant, Participatory Performance Summit 2022, Online

Mar 9: Artist Talk, National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal/Online

Jan 19: Panel Talk “Process Production Touring”, PuSh Festival, Vancouver

_2021

Nov 17-24: FARCE, CAPACOA Conference

Aug 23 - Sep 12: Residency: The Theatre Centre, Toronto

Aug 23: Spotlight Canada, Edinburgh Fringe, Edinburgh

Jul 22: Artist Talk, Canadian Association for the Performing Arts (CAPACOA)

Jul 8: videocan @ PACT Town Hall

Jul 1-31: Residency: asses.masses + arcade.asinus, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Vancouver

Jun 26: videocan Report 2021, videocan @ CATR 2021

Jun 18: Artist Talk, LMDA 2021, Mexico City

Jun 15: Artist Talk, “Theatre (and) Time”, Director’s Lab North

Jun 14-17: Director’s Lab North 2021 Participant

Jun 1: “Dramaturgy—from the Bottom Up: exploring strategies for bridging videos games and live performance in asses.masses”, LMDA 2021, Mexico City

May 17-24: Virtual Showings, The Theatre Centre, Toronto

May 7: Artist Talk, National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal/Online

May 6: videocommentary Episode 4: Cinerama, videocan

May 1: Artist Talk, BC DramaFest

Apr 1 - 30: palmagotchi development with asmaa al-issa

Mar 2-4: asses.masses, Festival Internacional de Buenos Aires (FIBA), Buenos Aires

Feb 27: “Who’s Afraid of Video Documentation? Geographies of Rights and Restrictions”, videocan @ FOOT 2021

Feb 12 - Apr 8: Digital Intimacies Research Group with Mammalian Diving Reflex

Jan 16: videocommentary Episode 3: What Happened to the Seeker, videocan

_2020

Dec 18-19: Open Studios, GlogauAIR, Berlin

Nov 18-24: Showcase Exhibition, GlogauAIR, Berlin

Oct 27: culturecapital:online Match 4, HowlRound.tv

Oct 26: videocommentary Episode 2: Pop-Up Love Party, videocan

Oct 5 - Dec 31: Residency: GlogauAIR, with Montserrat Videla Samper, Berlin

Sep 30: culturecapital:online Match 3, HowlRound.tv

Sep 2: culturecapital:online Match 2, HowlRound.tv

Sep 1-30: palmagotchi development with asmaa al-issa

Aug 7: “Video Could: Building an Online Video Archive of Canadian Performance” with videocan, CATR/SQET @ Concordia/UQAM, Montreal [online]

Jul 25: videocommentary Episode 1: Cain and Abel, videocan

May 20: culturecapital:online Match 1, National Theatre School of Canada + HowlRound

Feb 28: asses.masses, Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna

Feb 20-21: Preserving Performance in the Pacific Northwest, University of Victoria/Royal BC Museum, Victoria

Feb 9-13: culturecapital, Expanse Festival/Chinook Series, Edmonton

Jan 21: Workshop: culturecapital, Concordia University

Jan 15-16: Workshop: culturecapital, High Performance Rodeo, Calgary

Jan 9: asses.masses, Fonderie Darling, Montreal

Dec 20 - Jan 20: Residency: Fonderie Darling, Montreal

_2019

Nov 25-30: culturecapital / Residency: Azimuth Theatre, Edmonton/Calgary

Nov 22-24: asses.masses, Digital Summit, Banff

Nov 20: asses.masses, to the AWE #6, Calgary

Nov 1-10: Residency: SummerWorks, Toronto

Aug 12-14: culturecapitalSummerWorks, Toronto

July 31: asses.masses, soft/WALL/studs, Singapore

Jun 28-30: asses.masses, Risk-Reward Festival, Portland

Jun 8 - 9: 1991, In the Soil Festival, St. Catharines

Jun 6: culturecapitalMagnetic North Festival, Vancouver

Jun 3: culturecapitalCanadian Association for Theatre Research 2019 @ UBC, Vancouver

May 22 - Jun 1: 1991Why Not Theatre’s RISER Project, The Theatre CentreToronto

Apr 29: culturecapital, Rumble Theatre’s The Living Room. Vancouver

Feb - Nov: Canada Council Professional Development Grant: lighting design mentorship with Itai Erdal

Feb 26 - March 9: Dramaturge/Assistant director on Bombogenesis, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

Jan - Apr: Term Lecturer in Theatre Performance, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

_2018

Nov 26 - Dec 8, 2018: Residency: Shadbolt Centre for the ArtsBurnaby

Apr 2018 - Dec 2018: Residency: Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver

Nov 19-24: Residency: Impulse Theatre’s Peek-Fest, Victoria

Sep 7-8: Work in progress performance of Donkeyskin at Interplay 2018, Vancouver

Sep 4-5: Workshop presentation #2 of Cole Lewis’ 1991, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver

Aug 31 - Sep 1: Weathervane with asmaa al-issa at Digital Carnival, Richmond World Festival, Richmond

Aug 28: Response to “Reality Augments Theatre”, SpiderWebShow

Aug 27 - Sep 1: culturecapital, Boca del Lupo‘s Micro Performance Residency, Vancouver

Jun 19-22: Festival of live digital Art, SpiderWebShow, Kingston

Jun 16: LAUNCH Festival 2018, 149 Arts Society, Vancouver

Apr 18: Workshop presentation #1 of Cole Lewis’ 1991 at Feminist Fuck It Festival 2018, Toronto

Feb 22: Review: When the Guests Are Not Looking, Audain Gallery Blog

Feb 7-28: Artist-in-residence, Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, Seyðisfjörður, IS

Feb 5: “Biting the Hand that Feeds Us: On Public Funding,” SpiderWebShow.ca

Jan 11-13: BooksStudio D, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver

_2017

Oct 30: “Practice and Research: A Report from the Academy” in Canadian Theatre Review: Artistic Research (Vol. 172). Co-written with Ker Wells and Cole Lewis on interdisciplinary approaches to practice as research at Simon Fraser University

Oct 13-15: 49 translations, presented through The New Gallery (Calgary) at the Vancouver Art Book Fair

Oct 10: SCA Colloquium Artist Talk, SFU Woodwards

Sep 21-24: 49 translations, part of Nautilus, an Or Gallery Bookstore, at Flotilla 2017, Charlottetown

Sep 21-24: Speaking Ocean: Basic Expressions, part of Floating Warren Pavilion radio show at Flotilla 2017, Charlottetown

Sep 9-23: Helmets for a performance to come in SCA MFA Graduating Exhibition 2017, Binding, Breathing, Incorporating, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

Sep 2: Speaking Ocean: Basic Expressions in Your Kontinent Digital Carnival, Richmond World Festival, Richmond

Aug 31 - Sep 3: Just _____ Me in group exhibition, Hot Dog, at Parking Spot Projects, Vancouver

Aug 12: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 in Photophobia Contemporary Moving Image Festival, Art Gallery of Hamilton and Hamilton Artists Inc., Hamilton

Aug 5-12: Collaborator/assistant director on These Violent Delights directed by Cole Lewis at SummerWorks 2017, Toronto

Aug 4: Performance of Heart & Soul S13 E1 with Lily Ross-Millard as part of A Living Room Spectacle, Toronto

Jul 26: Guest Lecture on books as/and/in performance in Dr. Peter Dickinson’s “Literature and Performance” course

Jul 3: Philosophical Investigations in Muestra Movimiento Audiovisual 2017, Guadalajara

May 27 - Jun 4: Soliloquy in English in the 2017 rEvolver Festival, Vancouver

May 5-6: Chair of the 3rd Annual Tri-University Colloquium, Performances of the Future—Now, Vancouver

May 4-6: Collaborator and performer in Weather Pattern #1: An Object Opera by Ian McFarlane, part of MFA Spring Show 2017, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

Apr 8: In progress performance of Books at On the Boards Open Studio Showcase, Seattle

Apr 6-28: Sects in group exhibition In Circulation, part of the Capture Photography Festival, Vancouver

Mar 29: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 as part of the Film and Media Showcase at Cineworks, Vancouver

Mar 24: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 in the Official Selection at Martinique International Film Festival

Mar 12: Stanley Park object performance with Ian McFarlane, Vancouver

Mar 9-30: Raison Aver Passion in group exhibition, 49 at 74, Works on Paper by Canadian Artists, Marbury, New York, NY

Feb 23 - March 4: Performing in Romeo and Juliet directed by Cole Lewis at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, Vancouver

Jan 28: In progress performance of Books at PuSh Youth Assembly

Jan 18 - February 4: PuSh Ambassador Program

_2016

Dec 22: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 wins Best Experimental Film at Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival

Dec 7: Reading of A Zoo for Ideas as part of The Spaces of Art: A Critical Conversation, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

Nov 18: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 as part of the Official Selection at Experimental Forum 2016, Los Angeles

Nov 7-12: Heart & Soul: S12 E10 as part of Muestra Movimiento Audiovisual 2016, Guadalajara

Oct 14-15: That which doesn’t go away with Dave Biddle as part of Interplay 2016, Vancouver

Aug 5-14: Soliloquy in English as part of SummerWorks Performance Festival, Toronto

Jul 11-13: Panel presentation at the Deleuze Studies Conference 2016, Rome

Jun 17-19: Screening of new short film, Heart & Soul: S12 E10, created with Lily Ross-Millard, at the Festival of Recorded Movement at the Vancity Theatre, Vancouver

May 18: Moderating SFU Philosopher Café at Vancouver Public Library (Firehall Branch)

May 4-15: 49 translations as part of group exhibition No Lost Blips at Audain Gallery and Simon Fraser University, Vancouver

May: “On Failures,” Forum publication in the journal Performance Matters vol. 2.1

Apr 30: Panel presentation on English and commemoration at Tri-University Colloquium on Milestones and [Co]memoration in Theatre, Performance and Film at University of British Columbia, Vancouver

… the past