Founded in 1993 and based in Germany and Canada, Mammalian Diving Reflex is a research-art atelier dedicated to investigating the social sphere. Mammalian creates site and social-specific performance events, theatre-based productions, gallery-based participatory installations, video products, art objects and theoretical texts. They create work that recognizes the social responsibility of art, fostering a dialogue between audience members, between the audience and the material, and between the performers and the audience. In all its forms, the company’s work dismantles barriers between individuals of all ages, cultural, economic and social backgrounds.
Mammalian is co-led by a three-director team, consisting of Darren O’Donnell, Eva Verity, and Jenna Winter. Their work has been presented around the world in more than fifty cities.
Haircuts By Children
Haircuts by Children is a performance about trust, children’s rights, generosity and vanity, where children between the ages of 8-12 are trained by professional hairstylists, and then paid to run a real hair salon, offering members of the public free haircuts. The project invites the consideration of young people as creative and competent individuals whose aesthetic choices can be trusted.
First created in 2006, the most recent iterations of this touring performance took place in Kuopio, Finland (2015) and Whitehorse (2016).
Eat the Street
Eat the Street is an intervention into the city, in which a group of ten- to twelve-year-olds makes stops at several of a city’s most notable eateries. They are feted and fed, and charged with offering their brutally honest, uncensored opinions on the food, the service, the decor, the state of the washrooms and the charm of the waiters. For the mere cost of a meal, the public is invited to sit amongst the kids for a front-row view of the youthful connoisseurs in action. The panel of pre-adolescent adjudicators then holds an uproarious awards ceremony where awards are bestowed for everything from “Most Delicious” and “Coolest Chef” to “Least Graffiti in the Washroom”.
Please Allow Us the Honour of Relaxing You
Please Allow Us the Honour of Relaxing You occurred during the Open Engagement conference, October 11-13, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. In collaboration with the First Nations University, Darren O’Donnell organized an opportunity for the participants of Open Engagement to massage the students and staff of the First Nations University.
Please Allow Us the Honour of Relaxing You gently acknowledged that, in our society, stress and relaxation are unevenly distributed and attempted to redistribute some tranquility – if only momentarily.
Slow Dance With Teacher
For Slow Dance With Teacher, 24 teachers from a variety of Universities and schools were available for a slow dance. In the spectacularly lit Great Hall at Hart House, warmed by a blazing fire and a few glasses of scotch, Slow Dance With Teacher let desiring viewers fulfill life-long fantasies.