Finding Faults in the Firmament and The Ganser Syndrome

Description:

An evening of performance and film by Frances Leeming and Clive Robertson.

Frances Leeming’s multimedia performance Finding Faults in the Firmament offered a creation story, told through lipsynched puppetry, controlled fire, and choreography. Her animated film, Man Made Life was integrated into the work. 

Clive Robertson debuted The Ganser Syndrome, a composite video documentary of a theatre work presented in Toronto in May 1987. The project explores the split working lives of artists through twelve fictional scenes, including five adapted from Ronald Harwood’s play The Dresser (1980). Named after a psychiatric condition where individuals feign madness so convincingly they embody it, the work confronts the contradictions of art-as-labour. Set in a miniature theatre, streetcar, and restaurant, the video features narration by Luther Hansraj and footage of collaborative work by performance artists Frances Leeming and Johanna Householder.