Odditorio | A Performative Installation

By Troy Hourie and the Misfits Collective

Photo by Troy Hourie

March 11, 2023
Arts Performance Theatre, University of Guelph
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Odditorio is a performative art installation. It exists both as an art installation to be viewed in an exhibition space and as a performative work that is viewed by an audience. Therefore, we have built the following schedule for both exhibition and performances. Prior to both performances audiences are welcome to come view the space as an artwork before seeing the scheduled performance.

Saturday March 11
10 am-12 pm – Odditorio Exhibit only
1-2 pm – Preshow exhibit
2-3 pm – Performance 1
3-4 pm – Album Release party
6-7 pm – Preshow exhibit
7-8 pm – Performance 2

Get for tickets on Eventbrite

Students and children free (you must reserve on Eventbrite,) General admission $15 with option for additional donations.

Photo by Troy Hourie

Odditorio | A Performative Installation links the reinvention of awe for the audience through merging the use historic devices with modern technology to create the brilliant sights and sounds that will immerse the spectator in the artwork. Odditorio is an interactive art installation inspired by the story Sweeney Todd. A multi-year project, it brings together his artistic practices and interests in immersion, spectatorship, intermedia, wonder, and the merging of historical and contemporary technologies. Sweeney Todd, based on a penny dreadful story String of Pearls was chosen for its potential to merge the carnivalesque with steam punk to expose the mechanics of movement in the environment Combining installation art, puppetry, media, and performance, Odditorio brings together several outcast characters that have been re-envisioned as the carnival workers who inhabit an amusement park like Coney Island. Four characters become oddity dolls/puppets, built from found objects/toys and inhabit their own cabinet of wonder. Collectively, these cabinets pivot, open, break apart and store objects that he uses to build an evocative installation landscape. A performance where he unpacks the installation through play in front of an audience, bringing the installation around them as he goes is presented during exhibitions. Once the space has been established, the audience will be invited to interact with it. This is iteration 3, with presentations at Ei! Marionettas in Portugal (2019), World Stage Design in Calgary (2022) and upcoming FAIMS International Puppetry Festival in Saguenay QC (2023).

Photo by Troy Hourie

About the Artists

Troy Hourie
Troy is an installation artist and scenographer. Odditorio, FAIMS (2023), WSD (2022), Ei! Marionettas (2019), and Escape to Beira and Espreitar Tondela (2014/16), ARTErra Portugal, Apparitions, Arteles Finland (2015), and Aurora Cultural Centre (2018), Enchanted Spaces | The Wisdom Tree, Glimmerglass NY (2015). Static Apnea, Performance Arcade, NZ (2016) and American Vicarious NYC (2020), Negative | Positive Liberty, Performance Arcade, NZ (2023) and American Vicarious NYC (2021). Scenographer for 300+ productions for off-Broadway, regional and opera companies internationally.

Photo by Troy Hourie

College of Arts University of Guelph
Arts Performance Theatre, Alumni Walk MacKinnon Building, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1
Website: www.troyhourie.com/odditorio-a-performative-installation
Email: troyhourie@gmail.com

Facebook @troy.hourie
Instagram @troyhourie

Accessibility:
Arts Performance Theatre is fully accessible.