Aimée Henny Brown

Gothic Revival Walk
— 2011

Gothic Revival Walk took place on February 13, 2011, 7:00 – 8:15 pm. A performance walk using contemporary survival strategies to illuminate Halifax’s Gothic Revival edifices, transmitted by short wave radio to the Khyber Institute for Contemporary Art, where viewers could listen to or observe the walk from the building’s Gothic Revival turret.

Following the walk, an installation remained at the Khyber Institute.

Photo documentation courtesy of Christopher Bousquet.

Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

Research + Development

To describe the process of this performance, I began at the Gatekeeper's Lodge in Point Pleasant Park, dressed in a MUSTANG survival suit outfitted with a 2-way radio (the MUSTANG suit, intended for open-ocean survival, is lined from head to toe with a thick foam layer, making it buoyant). The start of the walk was marked at 7:00 pm with an emergency strobe in the lodge window, which you can see in one of the video stills above.

As the walk progressed, marine flares were lit in front of buildings along the route that were also constructed in the Gothic-Revival architectural style (as both the Gatekeeper's Lodge and Khyber Building are), illuminating that building and my movement through the city. The light from the flares created a roving beacon that attendees could monitor visually through binoculars placed inside the turret. While I walked the route from Young Street, via Inglis Street, and finally to Barrington Street, viewers at the Khyber were able to keep track of my performance by listening to my radio communiques of current locations, from a receiver installed beside the third floor turret (orange box in photo of installation below) at the Khyber.

The final gesture of the performance was to synch the emergency strobe in the Khyber building with the strobe at the Gatekeeper's Lodge, after which I turned off the radios and shut the lights to the room. The light from the strobe reflected against the silver solar blanket and bounced out from the turret window, making the flashes of light visible from Barrington Street below. The strobe was kept running into the night until the batteries ran out.

The use of survival strategies while exploring the history of Point Pleasant Park and the city of Halifax has let me bring a contemporary context to my archival research. The aesthetics of survival gear provides reference to catastrophes that have occurred in the park and city's history, while simultaneously discussing themes of apocalypse theory and end-of-times movements.