10 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2 2021
Monnet welcomed as McGill’s first Indigenous Artist in Residence
In her Artist Talk, Monnet discusses her art and inspiration Deana Korsunsky Staff Writer Continued from page 1. One of her goals as an artist, Monnet suggests, is to examine society, and highlight what she sees. “I see artists a little bit like sociologists, because our role is to respond to the world around us,” Monnet said. With nearly 100 people in attendance, Monnet discussed her inspiration and motivation for her work, and walked the Zoom attendees through some of her films and visual artwork. She began with a viewing of Ikwé (2009), her first officially released film. Translating to “woman” in Cree, Ikwé is a personal reflection on the importance of connection to one’s past, showing interspersed images of Monnet and of a moon, representative of Monnet’s eldest grandmother. Monnet explained her interest in the moon’s control over the tides of bodies of water, and how it affects environments and migration patterns.
Identifying as both Algonquin and French, Monnet aims to bridge cultures together in her artwork. (mcgill.ca)
“I was interested in how we physically shape and impact our environment and how [it] influences the people that we are,” Monnet said, referencing the motif of both physicality and metaphor that is so often present in her work. A skilled multidisciplinary artist, Monnet’s work extends beyond film. “Like ships in the night”—her art installation that features video, concrete, copper, and a triptych of photographs— details a 22-day journey across the Atlantic that Monnet took in 2012, in which she left a Dutch port on a steel-carrying cargo ship and traveled to Montreal. Monnet documented her journey with a video camera, examining the emotions of fear and serenity as she traveled, while also noting the Atlantic Ocean as a medium for colonial trade. “I wanted to challenge colonial organization of land, body, and time by exploring how communication and the cycle of the moon and tide can actually bridge physical and psychological divides,” Monnet said. In an interview with The McGill Tribune, Monnet spoke on her new position as Indigenous Artist in Residence, noting the importance of artists and Indigenous voices in academia. “I think institutions like McGill are starting to see the role they can play in giving more space to Indigenous students and Indigenous representation within their institution,” Monnet said. “ I believe this type of initiative can be a transformative experience, expanding knowledge, nurturing critical thinking and inspiring new ideas, creativity and innovation. It is surprising that it took this long, until 2021, to have such initiatives, but it’s better late than never.” Despite the virtual nature of her position at the moment, Monnet hopes to actively engage with the McGill community. “I’m hoping to exchange as much as possible with faculty and students [and] to be able to share as much as possible, to be available for students or anyone that wants to talk to me or learn more about my practice,” Monnet said. “I’m starting to see a few people reaching out and wanting to chat about art or Indigenous issues and I just think that’s what’s important right now, [to] have conversations.” While also working on her first feature film, Monnet has an upcoming exhibition that will be presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in April 2021.
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly - Launch of Tawhida Tanya Evanson’s debut novel “Book of Wings” Join avid readers to celebrate the release of the Antiguan-Québecoise poet’s debut novel “BOOK OF WINGS.” Feb. 18, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. Youtube
Festival Art Souterrain 2021 : Chronométrie
36 artists and performers present Chronometry themed contemporary pieces. Feb. 20 – Apr. 30 Ville Souterraine de Montréal, 747 Rue du Square-Victoria #247, Montréal, QC H2Y 3Y9 Free
An Orchestral Rendition of Daft Punk: Greatest Hits: Montreal Jam out to Orchestral renditions of Daft Punk’s greatest hits. Feb. 20, 9:30pm Online Free
Black Theatre Workshop and Segal Centre present light installation “Liberation’s Radiance” Beautiful light installation by the BTW’s Artist in Residence, Tim Rodrigues, to commemorate Black History Month. Feb.1 - Feb. 28, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. Segal Centre, 5170 chemin de la CôteSainte-Catherine Free
Winnie Ho and Charo Foo Tai Wei push the boundaries of dance The dancers’ virtual performances captures the essence of their craft Emilia Chavanne Contributor When we think of dance, we often think of grace, rhythm, and elegance. In its most traditional sense, dance is a beautiful artistic expression of the body. However, dance has been challenged to push its boundaries and reach new limits. Indeed, that is the objective of contemporary dance, as realized through Winnie Ho and Charo Foo Tai Wei’s performances. The virtual event, CanAsian Dance, was presented by Tangente, a Montreal-based contemporary dance company that encourages dance to be innovative and imaginative. The goal of CanAsian Dance, created by Festival Acces Asie, was to encourage each choreographer to create a piece that challenged them to take a new direction with their work. Through contemporary dance, the dancers experiment onstage, performing without rhythmic melodies, using a mixture of everyday sounds
like raindrops for music, or even dancing in complete silence. This experimental genre seems like the most apt to adapt to this virtual context, allowing for dancers to find new ways to perform. Ho and Charo Foo successfully took on the challenge of dancing despite the absence of an inperson audience. The first performance was Winnie Ho’s aWokening, in which she attempted to reconnect with her roots from Hong Kong. Ho’s choreography revolved around a wok, a traditional Chinese cooking instrument. The wok is special to Ho as she clutches it close to herself, and it remains attached to her while she performs. Ho’s choreography seems surprising at first, as she dances naked with a wok and with no music. However, as we learn about Ho’s approach and her connection to the Chinese diaspora, her performance becomes a deeply personal, authentic and unmediated expression of her cultural roots. During the intermission, Ho told the audience that
Ho and Charo Foo’s performances were part of ‘Festival Acces Asie.’ (tangentedanse.ca) her main challenge was to perform inside a theatre, as she has a strong spatial sensitivity and usually dances in open spaces. Ho attempted to create her own environment in the enclosed setting, considering it a new open canvas—effectively using the indoor space to convey her interior world to the viewers. The second performance was Charo Foo’s The Golden Stick Ritual. The piece was inspired by her
aunt, who practiced healing rituals throughout her childhood. Charo Foo seeks to recreate the intensity and energy her aunt possessed in her rituals, combining the technical precision of classical training with the complete fluidity of contemporary dance. In linking her background in classical Chinese dance to this new style, she defies traditional form and moves in entirely new directions. Charo Foo’s choreography imitates the healing
ritual’s force through the strength of her gestures and articulate facial expressions. Her performance is a voyage through herself, a transcendent experience where Charo Foo’s different emotions—resistance, pain— are embodied in her movement. She is able to synthesize these sensations into something beautiful and to share these feelings with the public. Through their innovative performances, Ho and Charo Foo examine their pasts and interior selves, merging these concepts of identity to form a new, innovative style. Contemporary dance does not commit to the elegance and structure that this art may provide in its conventional sense, but rather searches for a new path. Eschewing the prescriptions of grace and conventional rhythm, both dancers instead sought out inner experience for all its raw intensity, rendering emotion completely physical. Ho and Charo Foo’s performances pushed dance to transcend across cultures, across genres, and across screens.
