Intrepid Theatre

This performance was available until midnight on Sunday May 23. Thanks for watching!

—

Gemini was originally created for UNO Fest Online in 2020. Focusing on solo work in development, this 5 part series was then deconstructed for for Gemini, curated by Toby Lawrence, presented by BUSH gallery, for the Contingencies of Care Virtual Residency, co-hosted by the Toronto Biennial of Art, OCAD U Graduate Studies and BUSH gallery with the support of UBC Okanagan. Both iterations of Gemini were filmed in the artist’s backyard.

From Lindsay: Gemini is a performance that expresses archetypal aspects of human personality, bringing subconscious material into fruition through performative gestures and actions. Interacting with land, environment and indigenous expressions of culture, I utilize performance art, spoken word and Indigenous dance. The audio used for this piece was John Trudell’s spoken word and Alanis Obomsawin’s Theo pt.1.This piece came forward after a windstorm had knocked down a tree in my backyard. I started to use the wood to help inform the actions (chopping wood, stacking wood). I began interpreting this experience as an offering and thinking about the gratitude we must not forget for Mother nature.

My purpose in creating Gemini is to reconstruct knowledge of self while transmuting cathartic gestures and raising awareness. To know one’s self deeper; self awareness of my strengths and weaknesses, becoming humble and praying for insight. Gemini urges one to look deeper into their origin story, birthplace and relationship to cosmology.

Creating this self-reflective piece has expanded my appreciation and gifts I have for myself, others and the land.

Accessibility: The video is closed captioned

About the artist
My name is Lindsay Katsitsakatste Delaronde, I am a Kanienke’haka woman from Kahnawake. For the past 13 years I have been a grateful, active and contributing guest on Lekwungen territory, Victoria, BC. I hold a Masters degree in Fine Arts and a Master of Arts in the Indigenous Communities Counseling Psychology Program from the University of Victoria. I held the position as the first Indigenous artist in Residence from 2017-2019 and currently the Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator for the Fine Arts Department at UVIC.

My artistic practice focuses on Indigenous theatre, land-based/site-specific performance art, collaborative practice, cultural resurgence and social/political activism through the arts. My artistic media include photography, performance/theatre, movement/dance and visual studio arts.

My journey as an artist over the past two years has focused on collaborative practice and collaborative performances that reflect on reconciliation as a participatory action that involves bearing Witness and observation that puts discussions of perspectives and values into action. I have sought to take a critical stand regarding how art contributes to reconciliation. I have explored reconciliation through working with non- Indigenous and Indigenous groups of people to co-create artworks that symbolized unity, integration and respect. During my Indigenous artist in residence for the city of Victoria, I created 18 diverse collaborative projects and have contributed to the larger discourse regarding decolonization in the arts, reconciliation and Indigenous art practice and protocols.

Credits
Filmed by Eli Hirtle