imagineNATIVE 2167 Tour
Blueberry Pie Under A Martian Sky by Scott Benesiinaabandan
Indigenous Arts at Banff Centre presents imagiNATIVE 2167 VR tour
2167 is a virtual reality project commissioned and produced by TIFF, imagineNATIVE, PInnguaq, and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures.
Featuring artists:
- Danis Goulet
- Kent Monkman
- Scott Benesiinaabandan
- The interdisciplinary arts collective Postcommodity
Canada on Screen is made possible by presenting partners the Government of Canada, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Government of Ontario, and supporting partner Telefilm Canada. 2167 is supported by the Government of Ontario, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Harbinger Foundation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Trudeau Foundation, and the Concordia Research Chair in Computational Medea and the Indigenous Future Imaginary.
This exhibition includes four different VR works that can be shown sequentially in the same VR experience.
Viewing Hours:
Thursday Nov 21, 5pm – 9pm
Friday Nov 22, 12pm – 9pm
Saturday Nov 23, 12pm – 9pm
Sunday Nov 24, 12pm – 5pm
Friday Nov 22, 12pm – 9pm
Saturday Nov 23, 12pm – 9pm
Sunday Nov 24, 12pm – 5pm
This exhibition is open to the public.
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.
VR Works
Blueberry Pie Under A Martian Sky
Synopsis
(5 Minute Run Time)
Bringing to life a prophetic Anishinabe legend about a young boy who travels through a wormhole back to his people’s place of origin, Blueberry Pie Under the Martian Sky also addresses concerns about the revitalization, growth and evolution of the Anishinabe language.
Artist
Scott Benesiinaabandan is an Anishinabe intermedia artist that works primarily in photography, video, audio and printmaking. He has completed international residencies at Parramatta Artist Studios in Australia, Context Gallery in Derry, North of Ireland, and University Lethbridge/Royal Institute of Technology iAIR residency, along with international collaborative projects in both the United Kingdom and Ireland. Scott is currently based in Montreal.
Each Branch Determined
Synopsis
(7 Minute Run Time)
Imagining northern New Mexico 150 years in the future, where American Indian and Xicano pueblos work collaboratively to exercise communal and regional self-determination, Each Branch Determined echoes sci-fi conventions of an apocalyptic future that gradually reveal themselves to be a series of managed processes intended to restore and manage the land and its resources, as well as community ceremonies seeking to culturally and socially actuate past, present and future.
Artist
Postcommodity is an interdisciplinary arts collective based in the Southwestern United States and comprised of Raven Chacon, Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist . The collective operates through a shared Indigenous lens that engages the assaultive manifestations of the global market. Through Indigenous narratives of cultural self-determination, Postcommodity braces against the ever-increasing velocities and complex forms of violence that have colonized the 21st century.
The Hunt
Synopsis
(6Minute Run Time)
The Hunt imagines a postwar North America in 2167 that lies in ruin, where the law is enforced by a fleet of automated orbs that patrol the skies. When an orb interferes with a man and his son on a goose hunt on sovereign Mohawk territory, it forces an altercation.
Artist
Danis Goulet is an award-winning filmmaker whose short films have screened at festivals around the world, including the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, Aspen Shortsfest, imagineNATIVE and Berlin International Film Festival. In 2013, her film Barefoot was recognized with a Special Mention from the Berlin International Film Festival Generation 14plus international jury and her film Wakening screened before the Opening Night Gala at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. She is an alumnus of the National Screen Institute’s Drama Prize Program and TIFF Talent Lab.
Honour Dance
Synopsis
(7 Minute Run Time)
Honour Dance is a virtual reality experience based on a 2008 five-channel video installation by Kent Monkman, Dance to the Berdashe. Set in a verdant meadow at magic hour, Honour Dance offers a contemporary re-interpretation of a traditional Indigenous ritual featuring the “Berdashe,” a gender-bending figure whose behaviour and very existence astonished and appalled European explorers of the North America. Virile Dandies from the four directions invigorate the Berdashe with the vitality of their honour dance. Through this reciprocal and performative rite, the Dandies and Berdashe renew each other’s spirits, thereby refuting their obfuscation by colonial forces and Primitivism’s reductive pillaging of Indigenous cultures.
Artist
Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who is well known for his provocative reinterpretations of romantic North American landscapes. Themes of colonization, sexuality, loss, and resilience - the complexities of historic and contemporary Indigenous experience - are explored in a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation.
