êkâya-pâhkaci [don't freeze up]

June 12, 2008
Performance Art

About the Program

Cheryl L'Hirondelle's êkâya-pâhkaci [don't freeze up] was an interdisciplinary and exploratory process-based performance piece: an intersection of nomadic site-specifity, visual patterning, language, narrative, movement, and rhythm. The HIVE performance was endurative, with Cheryl L'Hirondelle constructing a lodge (a white canvas tent), sewing herself inside it, and slowly paint herself white. The back wall of the tent was made of reflective mylar and lights—aimed at the surface inside the lodge—creating dramatic movement, drawing bystanders either nearer or further away. For those who ventured near, they heard the being inside the tent repeating a series of words speaking of their body parts, delivered in Cree (nêhiyawêwin) in a repetitious rap-like manner. The project referenced the temporary structures that house many of Vancouver's homeless and was a continuation of L'Hirondelle's various site-specific performative activities.

Artist

Cheryl L'Hirondelle

Identifier

2008.0612 EKA

Part of the series

HIVE 2

Collection

grunt gallery Programming Archive

Location

Centre for Digital Media
685 Great Northern Way, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5T 0C6
Unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations

In copyright. For uses beyond Fair Dealing, research requests, corrections, takedown requests, or other inquiries, please contact grunt gallery: archives@grunt.ca