What Lab

Last but certainly not least⁠...⁠ ⁠ ⁠ What Lab proudly presents ⁠ Exquisite Pressure x Theatre Replacement⁠ ⁠May 15-16 @ 7:30pm⁠ ⁠ ExP is a WL series for performing artists to share new works-in-progress in front of an audience. Each ExP is hosted by a different company or collective, shaping each event with their own flavour and questions and curiosities. ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ This round, we've teamed up with the mighty @theatre_replacement to bring you works by:⁠ ⁠ ⁠ Elio Zarrillo @uncleelioo +⁠ Rafael Zen and Khalil Alomar @rafaelzzzzzzzen @everythingiscollage ⁠ @whywhisperstudio ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ $17, no one turned away for lack of funds⁠ ⁠Tickets on sale SOON see you later 😘⁠ ⁠ Check our feed to see other upcoming ExP's with @ourocollective and @theonlyanimaltheatre ⁠

ExP is baaaaaaack. We missed you.⁠ ⁠ ⁠ What Lab proudly presents ⁠ Exquisite Pressure x The Only Animal⁠ March 27-28 @ 7:30pm⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ExP is a WL series for performing artists to share new works-in-progress in front of an audience. Each ExP is hosted by a different company or collective, shaping each event with their own flavours and spices and curiosities. ⁠ ⁠ This round, we've teamed up with friends at @theonlyanimaltheatre to bring you works by:⁠ ⁠ 🪨 ⁠Alyssa Amarshi + Sarah Nash Wong @alyssamarshi @nashswong ⁠ 🪶 Noelle Lee, George Berking + Kyra Fay @noael_ly , @eletrik_algae , @geo.gram ⁠ 🍄 Sarah K. Finn @sarah.k.finn ⁠ ⁠ $17, no one turned away for lack of funds⁠ ⁠Tickets on sale now, link in bio⁠ ⁠ Stay tuned to learn more about these artists and their works. ⁠ ⁠ AND if TOA's Slow Socials haven't come across your feed yet, go check out this wonderful series of hands-on workshops. Be part of an opening up of worlds for these selected artists, and deep dive into the works to be presented at our ExP performance. More at @theonlyanimaltheatre ⁠ ⁠ Check our feed to see other upcoming ExP's with @ourocollective and @theatre_replacement

EDIT: Tickets on sale now! Link in bio ⁠ ⁠ What Lab proudly presents ⁠ Exquisite Pressure x OURO Collective⁠ ⁠April 24-25 @ 7:30pm⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ExP is a WL series for performing artists to share new works-in-progress in front of an audience. Each ExP is hosted by a different company or collective, shaping each event with their own flavours and spices and curiosities. ⁠ ⁠ This round, we've teamed up with the amazing @ourocollective to bring you works by:⁠ ⁠ ⁠ 💫 Kevin "Shazam" Li @funkyshazam ⁠ 💫 Rita Spirit @djritaspirit ⁠ 💫 Ronald Li w/ Tegvaran Sooch⁠ @ooze.rl @tegvaran ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ $17, no one turned away for lack of funds⁠ ⁠Tickets on sale NOW 🩵⁠ ⁠ Check our feed to see other upcoming ExP with @theatre_replacement

Tonight's the night! 🪩🪩🪩🪩🪩 On our big opening night, let's hear from @rafaelzzzzzzzen + @everythingiscollage and what they're investigating in LONELY OFFICES, as part of ExP x @theatre_replacement "When we created Lonely Offices in 2025, we wanted to explore two main fields: sound theatre and live composition through object manipulation. We were interested in queering sound art, oh-so inspired by John Cage’s composition techniques: chance operations, repetition, silence, and the transformation of everyday objects into instruments and performative scores. Through office materials, amplified gestures, vocal experimentation, and choreographed labour, we explore the workspace (office paranoia + hustle culture + the meaningless of labor) as a site of sonic ritual, queer absurdity, and collective alienation. With Aryo and Kyle @aryokh + @kyleloven from Theatre Replacement, we were able to develop six sound scenes that are both comedic and tragic." May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠, link in bio What Lab

More from Elio Zarrillo, @uncleelioo pulling back the curtain a bit on their work LIAM. "On metaphor, poet Mary Ruefle wrote that “a poem must rival a physical experience”. With this idea, as well as writer Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Library of Babel, poet Enrique Lihn’s speculations on the “limits to language” and one deeply personal and life-altering experience as a springboard, the latest phase of LIAM began. Through this work we have been exploring the performativity of language and its efficacy in one wanderer's neverending quest for meaning. We have been investigating text (specifically, poetry) as something that can be spoken, embodied, disrupted, and reimagined. We are building a broken library. We are poking gloryholes in systems, stories, and seriousness. We are getting into our bodies. We are Dancing." ExP x @theatre_replacement opens TOMORROW. Can't wait to share these works with you. May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠ What Lab

Now it's time to get some behind the scenes, inspirations, and sonic vibrations from @rafaelzzzzzzzen + @everythingiscollage & their work 📂 LONELY OFFICES 📞⁠ presented at Exquisite Pressure x @theatre_replacement "Through office materials, amplified gestures, vocal experimentation, and choreographed labour, this sound theatre piece explores the workspace (office paranoia + hustle culture + the meaningless of labor) as a site of sonic ritual, queer absurdity, and collective alienation. 1. Khalil + Rafael conduct sonic experiments at What Lab 2. Khalil + Rafael conduct sonic experiments at What Lab 3. INSPO: John Cage’s Water Walk / Object Manipulation 4. INSPO: RuPaul’s Supermodel / Music - YOU BETTER WERK 5. INSPO: Marie Davidson’s Work It / Music - WORK 2 BE A WINNER 6. INSPO: Byung-Chul Han's The Burnout Society / Book “Today’s society is no longer a disciplinary world of hospitals, madhouses, prisons, and factories. It has been replaced by another regime: a society of fitness studios, office towers, banks, airports, shopping malls, and genetic laboratories. Twenty-first-century society is no longer a disciplinary society, but rather an achievement society. Its inhabitants are no longer obedience-subjects but achievement-subjects. They are entrepreneurs of themselves.” -Byung-Chul Han Come for the lunch break, stay for the office party! Tickets in bio 💙" ExP x TR May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠ What Lab

Exquisite Pressure x @theatre_replacement ⁠ Some special features from @uncleelioo for their upcoming work LIAM: "philosophy, dialectics, perspective, simulacrum, persona blah, blah, blah, blah, blah 1. Elio at the Library 2. Elio & Maria at What Lab 3. INSPO: Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges (photo by 4. INSPO: The Artificial Hand by Enrique Lihn 5. INSPO: The Spectacle of Suffering by Stephanie Fung 6. INSPO: ceramics by Erica Eyre (from her solo exhibition Dancing for Dummies) 7. INSPO: Paris Hilton" ExP x TR May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠ What Lab

In LONELY OFFICES, we explore sonic objects and live noise improvisation through sound theatre and goofiness - inviting audiences to laugh at hustle culture and decompress from office paranoia. 😂😝🔊 In this 30min original work created for @what__lab + @theatre_replacement , we compose with contact mics, piano, zip ties, stamps, staplers, voice distorters and lip-syncing. Thank you to @aryokh + @kyleloven ❤️👔 Come for the lunch break, stay for the office party! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Tickets at @what__lab 📌 Shows in May 15-16 ✂️ Photos of our last rehearsal 🌈❤️🎈

Exquisite Pressure x @theatre_replacement May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠ What Lab ⁠ Up next we have our other ExP featured artist, Elio Zarrillo, performing: ⁠ ⁠LIAM ⁠ They went out in search of a name, but found a body instead. 10 years after a brutal assault left them nameless, Dancing is trapped in the local Library for Broken Books, combing through grievances, manifestos, and silliness on a trial-by-fire fight for freedom from their own self. Part warehouse party, part tattoo appointment, part philosophical chat on a long drive home, LIAM is a poetry-performance work that, through vulnerability and care, invites us to truly be with our suffering. And a special shoutout to the amazing team behind LIAM: 1. Elio Zarrillo – Creator/Performer @uncleelioo 2. Mateusz West – Director/Dramaturg @mateusz_west 3. Jade Harper – Tattoo Artist/Performer @ferdelancee 4. Stefanie Infantino – Production Designer @stefinfantino 5. Maria Zarrillo – Stage Manager @zzzarrillo 6. Brandi Bird – Poetry Editor @_birdrights 7. Star Deibert-Turner – Voiceover @wintersparklebaby tickets in bio or at whatlab.ca/exp-x-theatre-replacement See you this weekend!! 💫

Exquisite Pressure x @theatre_replacement May 15-16 7:30pm⁠ $17, no one turned away⁠, link in bio What Lab ⁠ Warm welcome to artists @everythingiscollage + @rafaelzzzzzzzen ! Sharing their new work ⁠ ⁠🖇️ Lonely Offices⁠ 🖇️ ⁠ Lonely Offices is a sound theatre work by multimedia performers Rafael Zen + Khalil Alomar that discusses colonial-capitalistic-narcissistic techniques of submission (work culture, gender roles, linguistic barriers, borders, boredom, repetition) in a surreal universe where Severance meets John Cage, and Meredith Monk meets The Office. This exploration on noise art, live improvisation and experimental composition questions: how can we deny this compulsory culture of lonely offices? ⁠ ⁠ 🖇️ Rafael Zen is a Brazilian-Canadian sound performer and experimental composer creating on the stolen lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. They research cyborg performance, wearable technologies, speculative languages, queer identity, and noise/disruption in improvisational composition. Their work blends video, theatre, installation, noise collage and sound performance, engaging with queer cinema and decolonial storytelling. They hold an Master’s in Contemporary Art and currently research New Media + Sound Art at Emily Carr University. Recent collaborations include works and awards with the Vancouver Biennale, BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Vancouver Contemporary Art Gallery, Western Front Gallery, & Kokoro Dance Society. 🖇️ Khalil Alomar is a queer Lebanese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist pursuing a degree in New Media and Sound Art with a Minor in Art and Text. He is interested in interventions against the autopilot of contemporary life, working in the fields of multimedia performance, intermedia installation, sound art and experimental composition. His practice blends DIY analog electronics, digital tools and multimedia environments through the language of the glitch and the absurd, reclaiming one’s agency within digital and physical systems by investigating sonic and performative satires against compulsory labor, gender troubles, surveillance as confession, and other colonial-capitalistic schemes.

More from @ooze.rl and @tegvaran and the upcoming ExP x @ourocollective Here's Ronald Li, @ooze.rl , on his new work Live Lab Love: "In my frustration with the lack of words available to describe my relationship with dance and how difficult it was to express the depth of certain moments, I turned to creating Live Lab Love. I was battling a particularly traumatic string of injuries at the time, and I was reflecting on my life in street dance. I saw how the social dynamics of street dance culture, shaped by unspoken and unwritten exchange, had shaped me. I decided to tell my story in this piece, capturing the timelessness and energy of my experiences, through the fields of social exchange I’ve lived in my entire life: the session, the lab, and the battle." Exquisite Pressure⁠ April 24-25th @ 7:30pm⁠ Tickets online or at the door, see you at WL ⚡️

More from @djritaspirit from our upcoming ExP x @ourocollective Exquisite Pressure Friday + Saturday, Apr 24-25 Doors 7pm, show 7:30 We asked Rita: Of all the work you could possibly create in the world, how did you land on this piece, at this moment? “Time in Two came from a moment where I didn’t have the capacity to create anything else. I was navigating something personal and couldn’t bypass it, so the work started there. What began as a response to limitation slowly opened into something else—an exploration of vulnerability, presence, and what it means to stay with something instead of pushing past it. In those periods, time felt both fast and slow at once, stretching and collapsing depending on where I was. Over time, it shaped itself into a piece about surrender and discovery." Tickets online or at the door, link in bio!