Maskisin ᒪᐢᑭᓯᐣ and Rinse

Description:

An evening of performances by Cheyenne Rain LeGrande ᑭᒥᐊᐧᐣ and Amrita Hepi presented by grunt gallery and Western Front. Diverging across continents and worldviews, LeGrande and Hepi’s performances converged in a shared reckoning with the idea of linear time and the self. Through language, adornment, embodiment, and the image refracted, the artists inhabited performance as a means to tease open unrecognized spaces. 

LeGrande presented a new performance titled Maskisin ᒪᐢᑭᓯᐣ in conjunction with her solo exhibition Mullyanne Nîmito at grunt gallery. The thirty-minute performance unfolded against a projection of her video work Mullyanne Nîmito (2022), filmed by Eli Hirtle. A focus of both Maskisin ᒪᐢᑭᓯᐣ and Mullyanne Nîmito was a pair of custom platform moccasins designed by Shaun Hansen and a fancy shawl LeGrande constructed out of aluminum pull tabs and pastel ribbon. Framed by four full length mirrors under a spotlight on the stage of the Grand Luxe Hall, LeGrande moved through various postures that explored the shapes and formal capacities of the sculptural garments. The performance was scored by a Nêhiyawêwin cover of Fleetwood Mac’s song “Dreams” (1977) produced by Chandra Melting Tallow with translation by LeGrande’s mother and grandmother. The track played on loop throughout the piece, and was sung live by LeGrande to close the performance. 

Hepi presented a thirty-minute excerpt of Rinse, a project in development directed by Mish Grigor, with sound by Daniel Jenatsch, and costumes by Aleisa Jelbart. Wearing black slacks and a white dress shirt, Hepi opened the performance with a dance to “You Are Everything” (1971) by The Stylistics, before moving into a monologue that explored the idolization of beginnings, the body in relation to the archive, and her personal journey as a dancer. To close the performance, Hepi assigned an audience member to recite a text from her laptop. Accompanied by Underworld’s rave anthem “Born Slippy .NUXX” (1996), Hepi ran laps around the stage while repeating the words back to the audience. The call and response built in intensity with flashing theatre lights that created a strobe-light effect, and climaxed with an invitation to the audience to join in shouting "forever." 

Both performances were live streamed on Vimeo. 

Presented in partnership with grunt gallery, with support from the Province of British Columbia via the International Presence program and the Government of Canada.

Rinse by Amrita Hepi was produced by Performing Lines, and is supported by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. The project has been supported by Supercell: Festival of Contemporary Dance through The Makers Program; and commissioned by Carriageworks, Dancehouse, and the Keir Foundation for the 2018 Keir Choreographic Award.