An artistic tribute to Ray Laporte
February 11, 2022
Following the sad announcement of the passing of Ray Laporte, the artist claude wittmann — a friend, collaborator, and correspondent of Laporte for almost a year — honoured Ray in the context of his recent performance at The Rhubarb Festival in Toronto on February 7, 2022.
With the festival focused around an installation by artist Andrea Shing Ling that explores the interplay between decay and regeneration, claude collaborated with Andrea to respond to her work by adding hand-written notes to it. He lay his thoughts on the floor of the installation, amid the dead wood stumps on which Andrea sowed and bio-controlled mycelia and bacteria.
On the floor, a hand-written message by wittmann, dedicated to Ray :
Dear friend and artist Ray Laporte died this past Friday in Sudbury.
maybe the medical system was too rough for him. be this room where I can say that, and you with me, hear(t) it.
claude, who developed a long-distance friendship with Ray over the course of his residency last year, also chose to leave him a note on the blog they shared.
Image: claude wittmann, afternoon of February 7, 2022. the plastic bags on top of the stumps are there to protect the molds from drying and being stressed out. the bags are removed during performances.