Conversation with Artist Tania Willard

August 06, 2016 by Ginger Dunnill

Broken Boxes Podcast is proud to present this episode as the seventh installation in a series of interviews featuring artists and their respondents from the socially engaged project #callresponse.

In this episode artist and curator Tania Willard speaks about her curatorial practice and breaks down the themes and materials she is focusing on in her current artistic work. She reflects on living and working on her Reserve and how she navigates being a mother and a practicing artist simultaneously. Tania also tells us about her involvement in #callresponse, providing insight into the body of work she is creating for the project and introduces us to the work and ideas of her respondent, Marcia Crosby.

Only Available Light, (series) birch bark, cedar root and copper foil, laser cut text, 2016. Tania Willard — *Only Available Light*, (series) birch bark, cedar root and copper foil, laser cut text, 2016. Tania Willard

"Interconnectedness is the root system of my work as an artist. Land based art, community engaged practice, printmaking, painting are the mediums I most often work in, these ways of working are tied to me, I am tied to my ancestors, we are tied to the land." -Tania Willard

Here is the conversation with Tania Willard:

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Music featured on this episode by Beatrice Deer, YAMANTAKA, Dead Prez

More about the Artist:

Tania Willard. Image credit: Kyla Bailey — Tania Willard. Image credit: Kyla Bailey

Tania Willard, Secwepemc Nation, works within the shifting ideas of contemporary and traditional as it relates to cultural arts and production .Often working with bodies of knowledge and skills that are conceptually linked to her interest in intersections between Aboriginal and other cultures. Willard has worked as a curator in residence with grunt gallery and Kamloops Art Gallery. Willard’ curatorial work includes Beat Nation: Art Hip Hop and Aboriginal Culture, a national touring exhibition first presented at Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011. Recently Willard curated CUSTOM MADE at Kamloops Art Gallery and was selected as one of 5 National curators for a National scope exhibition in collaboration with Partners in Art and National Parks. Her upcoming project co-curated by Karen Duffek will be a solo show, Unceded Territories: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun at the Museum of Anthropology. Willard’s personal curatorial projects include BUSH gallery, a conceptual space for land based art and action led by Indigenous artists.

Only Available Light,(still) selenite, digital video, 2016. Tania Willard — *Only Available Light*,(still) selenite, digital video, 2016. Tania Willard

#callresponse project details:

Strategically centering Indigenous women as vital presences across multiple platforms, #callresponse is a multifaceted project which includes a website, social media platform, touring exhibition and catalogue. The project brings together five local art commissions by Indigenous women artists from across Canada, including Christi Belcourt, Maria Hupfield, Ursula Johnson, Tania Willard and Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. Each artist has invited a guest to respond to their work, including Isaac Murdoch, IV Castellanos and Esther Neff, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Marcia Crosby and Tanya Tagaq.

#callresponse is co-organized by Tarah Hogue, Maria Hupfield and Tania Willard, and produced in partnership with grunt gallery and generously supported by the {Re}conciliation initiative of the Canada Council for the Arts, the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and The Circle on Philanthropy and Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Additional presentation partners include BUSH Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, FADO Performance Art Centre, Kamloops Art Gallery, OFFTA live art festival, the National Arts Centre, and the Native Education College.

Conversation with Performance Artists Esther Neff & IV Castellanos

July 08, 2016 by Ginger Dunnill

Broken Boxes Podcast is proud to present this episode featuring Esther Neff & IV Castellanos, respondent Artists for Maria Hupfield, as the sixth installation in a series of interviews featuring participants and their respondents from the socially engaged project #callresponse.

Photo Credit: Laura Bluer — Photo Credit: Laura Bluer

In this episode Brooklyn based performance artists Esther Neff and IV Castellanos share insight on collective organizing and their involvement in various performance hives including Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL) which was founded and is co-directed by Esther Neff. We also hear about how location, collaboration, process and materials influence various actions and shape their practices. They break down ideas surrounding terms such as 'NO-WAVE' and ‘Feminist' as related to their work, and we learn a bit more about their relationship to Maria Hupfield, whom they are respondent artists to in the #callresponse project.

Here is the conversation with Esther Neff & IV Castellanos:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

Music featured in this episode by: Marcelline Mandeng , Julia Santoli, Ellen O, Anais Maviel, Valerie Kuehne (member of Feminist Art Group), & Emilie Lesbros

More about the artists:

Esther Neff:

Esther Neff is the founder and co-director of Panoply Performance Laboratory (PPL), a collective making operas-of-operations and a laboratory site for performance projects. She is a collaborative and solo performance artist and independent theorist and a member of Feminist Art Group, Social Health Performance Club and Organizers Against Imperialist Culture. Her current work and research is a series of operations entitled Embarrassed of the Whole.

www.panoplylab.org/estherneff

http://estherneff.tumblr.com/

http://www.thefenserf.tumblr.com/

IV Castellanos:

"Abstract performance art has been the vein for my physical memory to thrive. Simply, I create objects and destroy them. In creating this gesture I am able to articulate ideas that I shifted and bottle necked down one resonating path. All of the information is channeled but visually clear, concise and often under 15 minutes. The interest is in transforming energy and the route has been moulded over the course of performing by trimming the fat and getting the job done. Labor is a source for my work, the physical body moving through day to day direction and carrying an othered body under constant critique and observation. There is power in focused action. Timing allows the intensity to maintain saturation for the viewer to barely digest in the moment." - IV Castellanos

ivcastellanos.com

#callresponse project details:

Strategically centering Indigenous women as vital presences across multiple platforms, #callresponse is a multifaceted project which includes a website, social media platform, touring exhibition and catalogue. The project brings together five local art commissions by Indigenous women artists from across Canada, including Christi Belcourt, Maria Hupfield, Ursula Johnson, Tania Willard and Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. Each artist has invited a guest to respond to their work, including Isaac Murdoch, IV Castellanos and Esther Neff, Cheryl L’Hirondelle, Marcia Crosby and Tanya Tagaq.

Conversation with Artist Maria Hupfield

June 01, 2016 by Ginger Dunnill

Broken Boxes Podcast is proud to present this episode as the fifth installation in a series of interviews featuring artists and their respondents from the socially engaged project #callresponse.

In this episode, Maria Hupfield speaks about her experiences living as an artist in New York, the influence her upbringing has had on her lifestyle, and shares reflections on where she finds inspiration to fuel her creative process. Maria speaks about her recent project It Is Never Just About Sustenance or Pleasure as part of SITElines, which is the second installment in SITE Santa Fe’s biennial series, opening July 16, 2016. Maria also reflects on the #callresponse project and shares more about her role as a participating artist and as one of the three initial project organizers.

Maria Hupfield. It Is Never Just About Sustenance or Pleasure, video installation video still 2016 Photo: Julie Nymann

"In live performance I insert myself into new conversations, activate space, and locate the body in relationship to self, collaborators, objects and place. My hand-sewn creations function as tools; jingles track body rhythms and modified industrial felt items are both shield and screen. These sculptures are carried on the body, recall everyday contemporary life and reflect upon sight, and sound, using the unexpected to shift meaning." - Maria Hupfield

Here is the conversation with Maria Hupfield:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

Music featured in this episode by Rosary Spense and ANOHNI

More about the artist:

Maria Hupfield is a member of Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario, currently based in Brooklyn NY. A featured international artist with SITE Santa Fe 2016, she received national recognition in the USA from the prestigious Joan Mitchell Foundation for her hand-sewn industrial felt sculptures. Hupfield was awarded a long term Canada Council for The Arts Grant to make work in New York with her nine-foot birchbark canoe made of industrial felt assembled and performed in Venice, Italy for the premiere of Jiimaan, coinciding with the Venice Biennale 2015. Recent projects include free play Trestle Gallery Brooklyn with Jason Lujan, and Chez BKLYN an exhibition highlighting the fluidity of individual and group dynamics of collective art practices; conceived by artists in Brooklyn and relayed at Galerie SE Konst, Sweden. She was a guest speaker for the Distinguished Visiting Artist Program, University of British Columbia, Indigenous Feminist Activism & Performance event at Yale, Native American Cultural Center and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Indigenous Rights/Indigenous Oppression, Symposium with Tanya Tagaq at the School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, MD. Like her mother and settler accomplice father before her Hupfield is an advocate of native community arts and activism. The founder of 7th Generation Image Makers, Native Child and Family Services of Toronto, a native youth arts and mural outreach program in downtown Toronto she is Co-owner of the blog Native Art Department International. Hupfield is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau in Montreal.

Presented in conjunction with #callresponse Maria's second iteration of Post Performance / Conversation Action, with Special Guest Alanis Obomsawin, at L'UQAM Galery MontrealJune 5th, 2016 is presented by OFFTA as part of Indigenous Contemporar… — Presented in conjunction with *#callresponse* Maria's second iteration of *Post Performance / Conversation Action*, with Special Guest Alanis Obomsawin, at L'UQAM Galery MontrealJune 5th, 2016 is presented by OFFTA as part of Indigenous Contemporary Scene (ICS), a programming produced by ONISHKA. http://offta.com/en/2016-edition/program/ Photo credit: Henry Chan

#callresponse project details:

Conversation with Singer Tanya Tagaq

May 10, 2016 by Ginger Dunnill

Broken Boxes Podcast is proud to present this episode featuring Tanya Tagaq, respondent Artist for Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. This is the fourth installation in a series of interviews featuring participants and their respondents from the socially engaged project #callresponse.

In this conversation, Tanya Tagaq offers an honest reflection to being an established recording artist today. She speaks about her relationship with her incredible band, her ideas surrounding being a mother and a touring artist, ways in which she practices self care and she shares her views on reconciliation and the important role that art plays in society. Tanya also speaks about her past collaborations and relationship with artist Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory, who Tanya is the respondent artist for in the #callresponse project.

“Tagaq projects sounds that carry the imprint of the body’s secret contours and recesses, delving far beyond personal utterance, out beyond human identity, to summon voices from the flesh cavity haunts of animal spirits and primal energies.” —THE WIRE, UK

Here is the conversation with Tanya Tagaq:

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All music featured on this episode by Tanya Tagaq

Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory and Tanya Tagaq performance, 2015. photo credit: Front of House Photography.

More about the artist:

Tanya Tagaq’s music isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. Unnerving and exquisite, Tagaq’s unique vocal expression may be rooted in Inuit throat singing but her music has as much to do with electronica, industrial and metal influences as it does with traditional culture.

This Inuk punk is known for delivering fearsome, elemental performances that are visceral and physical, heaving and breathing and alive. Her shows draw incredulous response from worldwide audiences, and Tagaq’s tours tend to jump back and forth over the map of the world. From a Mexican EDM festival to Carnegie Hall, her music and performances transcend language.

Tagaq makes musical friends and collaborators with an array of like-minded talents: opera singers, avant-garde violin composers, experimental DJs, all cutting edge and challenging. Tanya’s albums make for complex listening, but her string of Juno nominations attests to her ability to make difficult music speak a universal tongue.

Tagaq's most recent album, Animism was produced by west coast shape-shifter Jesse Zubot (Dan Mangan, Fond of Tigers) with additional production by Juan Hernandez. The record features Michael Red (Low Indigo), a live programmer whose wild northern field recordings often serve as Tagaq’s de facto backing band, percussionist Jean Martin and Belgian opera singer Anna Pardo Canedo.

Animism has received major critical praise and attention in Canada. The album won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize, a prestigious annual award (based on the UK’s Mercury Prize) that judges albums based on “the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history.” Tanya’s unforgettable gala performance and acceptance speech have further amplified the impact of this win, and her victory has been heralded a turning point in Canadian music and culture. Animism has also been nominated for in “Pushing the Boundaries” and Aboriginal Songwriter of the Year categories from the Canadian Folk Music Awards (winners have not been announced at this time).
Resource: Six Shooter Records

#callresponse project details:

Conversation with Artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

April 16, 2016 by Ginger Dunnill

Broken Boxes Podcast is proud to present this episode as the third installation in a series of interviews featuring participants and their respondents from the socially engaged project #callresponse.

In this episode we get into conversation with performance artist Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory. She speaks on work as a uaajeerneq performer of Greenlandic mask dancing and her use of poetry as art form. She speaks on her upcoming performance project with #callresponse and we also hear about her experience as a founder and Executive Director of Qaggiavuut, Iqaluit’s first performing arts center. Laakkuluk gives insight on the balance of being a mother and an artist, remembering our connection to land, and ways to create creative space within our communities.

“I am an advocate for the deep human need for all people, but especially post-colonial Indigenous people to express themselves at a level of creative excellence. I am a mother, wife, writer and performer based in Iqaluit, Nunavut" - Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory

Here is the conversation with Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory:

Subscribe to Broken Boxes Podcast on iTunes HERE to stream and download this episode

All music featured on this episode by artist Tanya Tagaq from the album Animism

More about the Artist:

Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory is a uaajeerneq performer of Greenlandic mask dancing, music, drum-dancing, storytelling and acting. Her career has allowed her to travel all across Canada and to many wondrous parts of the world. Laakkuluk’s poetry was recently commissioned for the exhibit Fifth World (2105), Wanda Nanibus Curator, Mendel Gallery, Saskatoon. Her collaboration From the Belly to the Moon(2012), a six part postcard exchange project connecting performance art in Iqaluit to New York was a Fuse Magazine artist project. In addition to her poetry, theatre and uaajeerneq, Laakkuluk is founder and Executive Director of Qaggiavuut, Iqaluit’s first performing arts center. She also curated projects that challenged outdated museum exhibition practices for Inuit culture at the Art Gallery of Ontario including: Inuit Art in Motion(2003) and litarivingaa? Do You Recognize me?(2004), which additionally brought youth together across urban and rural environments through Tauqsiijiit an onsite residence youth media lab located at the heart of the exhibition with participants from: Igloolik Isuma Productions, Qaggiq Theatre, Siqiniq Productions, Daybi, Tungasuvvingat Inuit Youth Drop In Centre (Ottawa), 7th Generation Image Makers (Native Child and Family Services of Toronto), Debajehmujig Theatre Group (Wikwemikong) and Qaggiq Theatre (Iqaluit). “I am an advocate for the deep human need for all people, but especially post-colonial Indigenous people to express themselves at a level of creative excellence. I am a mother, wife, writer and performer based in Iqaluit, Nunavut. My three children speak Greenlandic, Inuktitut and English – all languages part of their heritages. I am passionate about spending time on the land – hiking, snowmobiling, boating, hunting, camping, eating wild foods, building cabins and cultivating raccoon tans are all activities that figure largely in my family.”

Qaggiavuut Performing Arts Society Website

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and family in Greenland 2015

Artist Project Details:

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory: ujimajaaqtuqanngiguuq "they call it traditional knowledge" is a 30 minute performance piece to take place at the Nunavut Legislature, based on Greenlandic mask dancing and incorporating storytelling and electronic music. Uaajeerneq is a clownish dance that is highly sexualized, frightening and hilarious. It is a type of entertainment that teaches children about panic, adults about boundaries, or the lack thereof and examines the limits of human experience in the unknowable immensity of the universe. Every Uaajeerneq dancer sees the performance as a selfrealization in the face of decolonization. “As I develop my practice, I'm looking for ways of people, both Inuit and nonInuit to see art as an individual exploration of identity, culture, politics, ugliness and beauty and not as a pageantry of "Inuit art." This project is taking a meaningful part of my practice right to the centre of Nunavut politics the legislature, addressing this idea full on.” Laakkuluk works with a group of seven politically minded Inuit on community actions and political discussions, who will collectively act as the respondent for this project, creating an audio recording of the group’s dialogue for the project’s exhibition at grunt gallery. This group comes together to challenge themselves and support each other to make political change at a community and a territorial level, acting as a safe zone for political discussion and often collaborating with each other for other projects. Professionally, the group is comprised of artists, bureaucrats and in various positions of emerging leadership.

Here is the conversation with Tania Willard:

More about the Artist:

#callresponse project details:

Here is the conversation with Esther Neff & IV Castellanos:

More about the artists:

Esther Neff:

IV Castellanos:

#callresponse project details:

Here is the conversation with Maria Hupfield:

More about the artist:

#callresponse project details:

Here is the conversation with Tanya Tagaq:

More about the artist:

#callresponse project details:

Here is the conversation with Laakkuluk Williamson-Bathory:

More about the Artist:

Artist Project Details:

#callresponse Project Details: