performance
Samqwan/Nipiy
September 24, 2017
Samqwan/
Nipiy
Jordan Bennett and Lori Blondeau
Flotilla
September 24, 2017, 10:30 to 11:30 am
Charlottetown, PEI/ Epekwitk
Curated by Tarin Dehod
Presented by AKA artist-run in partnership with Flotilla
Working together for the first time, Jordan Bennett (Mi’kmaq, Ktaqmkuk) and Lori Blondeau (Cree/Saulteaux/Metis, Saskatchewan, Treaty 4) present Samqwan/Nipiy. The performance unites Mi’kmaq and Cree words for water, bringing East Coast and Plains Indigenous cultures together to celebrate, honour, and explore water as a vital resource impacting the way of life for cultures globally.
Bennett and Blondeau will use water surrounding the island and locally sourced fish in a performative feast. By performing within the Indigenous practice of feasting, the artists ceremonially give thanks for water enabling participants to bear witness to their act of celebration and partake in the life that it sustains.
Jordan Bennett is a multi-disciplinary visual artist of Mi’kmaq ancestry from Stephenville Crossing Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). Jordan holds a BFA from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and a MFA from University of British Columbia Okanagan. He has shown extensively nationally and internationally, in venues such as The Museum of Art and Design, NYC; Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, NM; Campbelltown Art Centre, Campbelltown, AUS, and was one of two artists to represent Newfoundland and Labrador at the 2015 Venice Biennial at Galleria Ca’Rezzonico, Venice, Italy. Jordan’s ongoing body of work utilizes various mediums to explore land, language, the act of visiting, familial histories and challenging colonial perceptions of indigenous histories, stereotypes and presence with a particular focus on exploring Mi’kmaq and Beothuk visual culture of Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland).
Lori Blondeau is a Cree/Saulteaux/Metis artist working primarily in performance art, but also in photography and installation. Blondeau is a member of the George Gordon First nation and is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.