This afternoon I participated in a rare thing in Regina: a walking art event, sponsored by New Dance Horizons. Gary Varro, a local artist, led a group of about 20 people on a silent walk in Wascana Centre, on and around the Goose Island Overlook, one of the few hills in this city. It’s artificial, of course, made of material dug out of Wascana Lake when it was deepened during a Depression-era make-work project, but that’s true of almost every hill on these flat plains.
It rained lightly for ten or fifteen minutes as we were gathering–never a good thing in February, since the rain freezes when it hits the ground, even when the temperature is above zero, as it was today–and the sky was cloudy more or less throughout the event. The sun did break through, briefly, which was lovely. Originally the walk was scheduled for last weekend, but because the temperature was close to minus 30, it was postponed. I’m happy it was, not because I don’t like the cold, but because I was out of town last weekend and wouldn’t have been able to be part of it.
When we finished, Robin Poitras, the artistic and managing director of New Dance Horizons, met us with two thermoses of tea. A cup of hot tea warming one’s hands on a cold, damp day–that was wonderful.
Most of my walking these days is utilitarian: walking to work, usually, quickly and alone. This walking was very different. We walked together, as a collective, silently, slowly, with a deliberate intention. I was surprised at how different it was from my everyday experience, how powerful it was, how sober and contemplative it was, and yet also how strangely joyful. It was the fourth time Gary has led a February walk like this one, and I wish I had participated in the other three. I have no idea how I missed them, but if he does this again, I will be there.
The slow pace of our walk got me thinking about walking artist Hamish Fulton’s Slowalks. I wonder if we could organize something like that locally, as an homage to Fulton’s work. In the spring, perhaps–nobody wants to move that slowly here in the winter, because it’s too cold, and you need to move a little more quickly if you’re going to keep warm.
Here’s a link to some video documentation about a Slowalk in support of Ai Weiwei that Fulton organized in London in 2011. If you’re interested in something like this, let me know. We could do it outside, perhaps in a parking lot, the kind of location Fulton often uses for these projects, and perhaps in support of some timely purpose. So many things are happening in the world today, and by walking together, we could express a response to one of them. Right now this is just a notion, but if there’s any interest, it could become more than that.