MAIN SPACE EXHIBITION /








SHED | knowing each other as different and the same, Pam Tzeng. Photography by Michael Vincent Tan.

a seeing

a feeling

a being with

a sensorial unravelling

a conjuring of ancestral love and grief

a shedding of what holds us from knowing each other as different and the same.



SHED | knowing each other as different and the same



Pam Tzeng

April 27, 2022 – May 14, 2022
 

Under the bright yellow glow of SHED, time suspends for an alchemy of movement, sound, animate costumes and light. Featuring a collection of time-based moving portraits, SHED | knowing each other as different and the same holds space for the multiplicity and humanity of bodies of culture1. The immersive performance installation invites pause. A slowing down and an enlivening into presence for an otherworldly experience.

SHED is an invitation to notice the subtle ways our bodies perceive, receive and relate to an “other”.  To witness the assumptions and imaginings that consciously and/or unconsciously colour our experience of difference. To remember that every body inhabits an internal life as vivid and complex as our own.



The collection of choreographies by Tzeng includes a duet created and performed with experimental musician FOONYAP, and five solo portraits created for, with and danced by Cindy Ansah, Cory Beaver, Kara Bullock, Alèn Martel and Mpoe Mogale. Sound, costumes and light manifest as energetic extensions of the body, spirit and land. The design elements of each work emerged from tender and nurturing exchanges with sound designers FOONYAP, Jiajia Li, Num and Darren Young, costume collaborator Alison Yanota, sodium light designer Nicolas Brunet-Beaulieu and lighting designer Jonathan Kim.

Each portrait draws from the intimate and vast inner landscapes of the performers’ embodied values, memories and lived experiences. Each exists as a testimony of the beauty and resilience of bodies of culture. 

From Pam: I replace the language and idea of  “People of colour” with “Bodies of Culture” as reclamation of the inherent wisdom of the body and the pieces of  the experiences of racialized people that have been stolen, stripped away, and invisibilized by white body supremacy. Bodies of Culture comes from my practice in Somatic Abolition guided by the work of author, therapist and racialized trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem.





BOOK RSVP TICKETS FOR PERFORMANCES:


SHED features a collection of 6 moving portraits. There are 3 different pods of performances to experience:

POD 1: Pam Tzeng and FOONYAP (60 mins)

POD 2: Mpoe Mogale and Cindy Ansah (60 mins)

POD 3: Kara Bullock, Alèn Martel and Cory Beaver (70 mins)

Performances run Thursdays through Saturdays with a maximum of 8 audience members per performance.

Wednesdays, the gallery will be open 10am – 6pm for visits to see the ephemera of the performances. Admission is FREE.

PLEASE NOTE: The New Gallery is still strongly recommending masks for the safety of our community, artists and staff.

TNG will be open to the public Thursday through Saturday from 10AM to 6PM. Fridays, TNG will be open from 2PM to 7:30PM. Wednesdays, the gallery will be open for folks to visit the space to see the ephemera of the performances.  Tickets for performances and to visit the gallery will be available April 14, 2022. All are welcome and this event is free.

If you don’t feel comfortable visiting TNG in person, we are happy to offer free digital tours via Zoom. If you’d like to organize a tour please contact Alexa Bunnell, our Communications & Outreach Coordinator, at alexa@thenewgallery.org and we will reach out to you with a meeting link.





DETAILED SCHEDULE /















Artist Bio /


Pam Tzeng (曾小桐) is a second-generation Taiwanese-Canadian choreographer, interdisciplinary performance maker, movement educator and arts worker based in Moh’kíns’tsis Treaty 7 Territory. Pam takes pleasure in extremes to craft honest, visceral and animated performances about the politics of the body with objects and costumes. Her practice and aesthetic imagination is coloured by her training in contemporary dance, mask, clown, puppetry. Led by her embodied curiosities, she graciously traverses charged thematic territories to reveal and empower unseen truths.

Her solo and ensemble works have been presented across Canada and through the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Past works include: “A Meditation on the End” Jo-Lee, “SHE and he…” By Jo-Lee, That ch*nk in y/our armour commissioned by CanAsian Dance KickStart Festival 2018 (Tkaronto) and Cheers & Tears: A Journey Into Whiteness commissioned by Good Women Dance Collective (Amiskwacîwâskahikan).
SHED is made possible with the support of Dancers’ Studio West Artist in Residence Program, The New Gallery 2022 Main Space Program, Canada Council for the Arts,  Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Calgary Arts Development, Calgary Animated Objects Society.

PRESS /



Local IBPOC Artists Unite For Calgary Premiere Of Multi-Sensory Presentation feature about Pam Tzeng’s and FOONYAP’s work in the SHED exhibition by Stephi Wild for Broadway World. Published May 13th, 2022.

Pam Tzeng: Artist Rekindles Her Love of Dance in SHED featuring The Story Telling Podcast where Tzeng tells her story and about the SHED project by Cherie McMaster for Calgary Arts Development. Published May 10th, 2022.

Pam Tzeng and FOONYAP Celebrate the Inherent Wisdom of the Body in SHED an insightful look into Tzeng’s exhibition SHED, by Danielle Wensley for RANGE Publication. Published on April 26th, 2022.




Credits /


To see the creative team of SHED’s bios, follow the link here.

Ideation and Choreography  

Pam Tzeng

Portraits created for and with performers

Cindy Ansah
Cory Beaver
Kara Bullock
Alèn Martel
Mpoe Mogale
Pam Tzeng
FOONYAP

Sodium Light Design

Nicolas Brunet-Beaulieu

Lighting Design and Technical Direction

Jono Kim

Costume Design Collaboration

Alison Yanota

Pam Tzeng

Sound Design

FOONYAP

NUM (Milad Bagheri Torbehbar and Maryam Sirvan)

Darren Young

Music Mastering

Krzysztof Sujata

Technical Stage Management

Tauran Wood

Exhibition Text

Jordan Baylon

Co-Production

Dancers’ Studio West Artist in Residence Program (2019-2022)

The New Gallery 2022 Main Space Program

Made possible with the support of

Canada Council for the Arts

Calgary Animated Objects Society

Calgary Arts Development

Alberta Foundation for the Arts

Mile Zero Dance 2022 Dance Crush Series

Plastic Orchid Factory 2022 adaptives series

Project Management Team

Pam Tzeng

Bianca Guimaraes de Manuel

Kris Vanessa Teo

Special thanks to:

Melissa Avila

Loretta D’Antuono

Sylvie Moquin

Jamie Tea Tognizzini

Thomas Geddes

Katie Green

Sasha Ivanochko

Ping Tzeng

Michael Vincent Tan

The Old Trouts Puppet Workshop

Inside Out Theatre

Theatre Encounter