The Star In Question

Performance
Sunday, October 23, 2016 — 8:00pm.
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 1

The Star in Question is a performance that translates a high school trigonometry exercise into an absurdist inquiry of perception, belonging, and celestial harmony. The math problem is ‘solved’ by disregarding instructions and improvising with physical, imagined, and historical space, using projections, voice, and choreographed audience participation.

A high school math exercise gone awry. We are assigned to use trigonometry to model an astronomic constellation; the audience follows the artist in circumventing the grid. The stars are plotted through projections, audience participation, and unruly narratives. The artist improvises by looking at things obliquely; stars appear more visibly this way. In the spirit of side-stepping rational axes, trigonometry is mirrored in the musical triad, and the artist conflates disparate ways of perceiving and mapping relations (use A and B to find C) to infer belonging. In the frenetic footsteps of Italo Calvino and early experiments in perception and optics, the artist draws lines between a Renaissance polymath’s erroneous lust for a system of celestial + terrestrial harmony, with math class, choir, and home economics all rolled into one.


Serena Lee layers cinema, performance, voice, and text to map a political grammar of harmony. Alongside solo projects, she collaborates internationally and has shared works in North America, Europe, and Asia. Lee holds an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam, a BFA from the Ontario College of Art and Design, and an Associate Diploma (Piano Performance) from the Royal Conservatory of Music. Serena was born in Toronto and is based between Chinatown, the UK, and the Netherlands.

The Star In Question

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