Roger Lewis

Born and raised in Halifax, is a herbalist, freelance writer, multimedia artist and one of the founding members of 00. A Portrait of Survival is his first major work and was funded by the Canada Council Explorations Program and 00. A Portrait of Survival utilizes the juxtaposition of contrasting imagery and musical textures in an attempt to create a non-verbal language capable of expressing the phenomena associated with disease, wellness, and personal transformation. The video soundtrack, composed and performed by Gordon Laurin and Roger Lewis, is also enclosed separately on cassette.

The Babies Upstairs was formed in 1983 by four visual artists as a means of extending their creative interest through music and sound. Each member comes from a different musical background and through developing a form, a naive improvisation, the eclectic range is brought together. The band uses a variety of instruments such as bass, slide guitar, piano, saxaphone, trombone, zither, many types of drums as well as a host of other found objects.
The texture and timbre of sound with unexpected rhythmic possibilities has been an important part of the Babies' vocabulary. The band has had many successful gigs including graduating ceremonies at the Nova Scotia College fo Art and Design as well as other Universities. The group was given a grant in 1994 by 00 to failitate the production of a CD compilation of their 100+ hours of archival tapes. THe CD will be released in the fall of 1996.


A Portrait of Survival

1996, 22:00 minutes