Patrick Blenkarn Scholarship Residency

Patrick Blenkarn makes art in Vancouver, often in the forms of performance, artist books, illustration, and video. His recent projects explore diverse subjects including pedagogy, labour, digital performance, and multilingualism and have recently been featured in film festivals, galleries, and performance festivals.

His writings on political performance and interdisciplinary arts have been published in Theatre Research in Canada, Performance Matters, and Canadian Theatre Review. He has also published reviews and essays on SpiderWebShow, the Audain Gallery blog, and GUTS Magazine. He currently works as the producer for the politically-fuelled Vancouver-based theatre company, The Elbow.

Patrick has a degree in philosophy, theatre, and film history from the University of King’s College (Halifax) and Dalhousie University (Halifax) and a master of fine art in interdisciplinary studies from Simon Fraser University (Vancouver).

Blenkarn is currently interested in intervening in the history of the image of the donkey/ass and the way the animal bears the burdens of human moralities, judgments, and meanings. His experiments at Malaspina during his residency will form the foundation to a larger performance project he is developing in 2019 about donkeys, labour, and capitalism in the 21st century.