Enceladus Below
Matthew Toffoletto’s MFA Project
Friday, November 25 & Saturday, November 26, 2022 | 7:00 PM
Soundstage (Room 4365) – SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, 149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver
Tickets: Students (with valid student ID) + Underemployed: $5 / SCA Alumni + Seniors: $10 / SCA Faculty + Staff: $15 / General: $20
Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn. It is known for the more than 100 geysers near its South pole that launch vaporized water as much as 500 kilometers from the surface. These emissions originate in the moon’s vast subsurface ocean and penetrate layers of sedimentation covering the body’s uncertain history. It is also considered to be the most likely location in the Solar System outside Earth to harbor life.
Enceladus is also the name of a giant of Greek antiquity, mothered by Gaia, the Earth, in collision with Ouranos, the sky. Enceladus was said to have battled the goddess Athena, and in defeat was buried beneath a mountain, spewing fire through its layers for all time thereafter.
These two figures—moon and giant—form the title for a work about the sedimentation of time, about a world beneath our own, and about the moments and acts of memory and return that erupt through these geotemporal separations. Thus, Enceladus Below imagines the collections and compactions of time and memory in life beneath its own layers. Through a series of rituals, gestures, musings, memories, arguments, meals, and recreations, the fragments, incidents, and dreams that make up life come slowly and briefly into one conjoined view.
Enceladus Below was a thoroughly collaborative effort, engaging the memories and creativities of its many participants. I am indebted to the many people who joined this process and made this work happen:
Lauren Han (Performer)
Zoë Braithwaite (Performer)
Rosemary Morrison (Performer)
Claudia Chan (Production Manager)
Suzie Zhong (Technical Director)
Joy Wu (Stage Manager)
Nicole Huang (Projection Designer)
Jela Ahn (Projection Designer)
Gabriella Hu (Lighting Designer)
Brianna Bernard (Set Designer)
We would like to offer special thanks to the many others who contributed in generous ways to our work, a list which can by no means be entirely exhaustive: Erika Latta, Mauricio Pauly, Andrew Curtis, Ben Rogalsky, Gillian Hanemayer, Kyla Gardiner, Kittie Cooper, Alexandra Caprara, Shervin Zarkalam, Peter Dickinson, and Aydan Hasanova.
Presented by the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts.
Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University.
We respectfully acknowledge that this work was created and presented on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), and Qayqayt Nations.