#yegarts

@inktober DAY 08: HIKE 🥾

Seems PC took the wrong turn? Sure would be better to have a beach vacation right about now…🏖️

When I was 16 I took part in a program by my local theatre where a bunch of teens worked with adult theatre workers. In my case, I was part of a group who got to write a wholeass play about the rising violence in our city (Edmonton). The play was called "Are We Safe Yet?" and was named after a graffiti our light/sound tech had recently seen (we were going to pose in front of it for our poster but they'd cleaned it out already).

^ Our Jets vs Sharks opening number

We opted to make it a play without an overarching story, but rather snapshots of various approaches and styles that were tied together by the theme of rising violence.

Some highlights from that play include:

A play opening that was a Sharks vs Jets-style fight complete with the finger snaps and choreography by a fight choreographer our playwright mentor (Mieko Ouchi, 10/10 recommend her work) brought in to help us

A monologue where I, a Brazilian immigrant, talked about how funny it was to me that Edmontonians thought the city's violence was getting out of control when compared to what I had left behind

A Love Actually-style scene where one of my co-stars/authors and I held up signs that we'd throw on the ground

Another co-star dressed in a fuzzy pink elephant costume "sneaking" across the stage while we picked up the signs at the end of the previous scene

A scene about two parents coping with the fact their kid got behind the wheel of a car while drunk and was now in the ICU

A scene that started with a girl and a boy getting out of bed in their undies and monologuing about how they're really not okay as they put on their clothes like they're putting on armour

A scene contrasting what elder abuse looks like vs a loving relationship where two people are sitting at a cafe and their phone convos are opposites of each other

New temporary public art by local Indigenous artist Ambrose Cardinal is now gracing Edmonton communities along the LRT line. Ambrose created the new designs as part of the SuperTrain public art initiative led by The Society of Northern Alberta Print-artists (SNAP) in partnership with the Edmonton Arts Council and Pattison Outdoor Advertising. The multidisciplinary artist was commissioned to create new designs over a two-month residency rooted in the theme of “environmental stewardship,” during which he was encouraged to explore the relationship between the natural world and urban spaces.

His is the first of three SuperTrains. Later this year, collaborative designs by Michelle Campos Castillo and Roger Garcia will roll out in August; followed by Helen Gerritzen and Kyla Fischer in November. The three transitory public artworks will each provide a travelling public art exhibit for a span of at least eight months.   

Ambrose Cardinal is a multidisciplinary Métis and Cree artist and Oskapewis (ceremony helper), hailing from Amiskwaciwâskahikan. The intersectionalities between his work as an Oskapewis and as an Indigenous artist revolve around expressions of radical love, resistance and healing. His most recent artistic interests are based around relationality to place, to honour the ones who currently inhabit space while also honouring our ancestors and connection to Amiskwaciwâskahikan.  Art to Ambrose is essential to healing, essential to understanding and essential to creating a world worth fighting for.  

“Environmental stewardship is ingrained into our beings as Indigenous peoples,” said artist Ambrose Cardinal, addressing the central theme of his work for the project. “The term carries a bit of weight – Indigenous peoples historically and currently have been systematically forced and disempowered from being the stewards of our lands. Even though this notion of being stewards of our lands was one of the original interpretations of treaty, we are not able to be these stewards, due to the active process of colonization. But it is our responsibility to reclaim our inherent rights to do so.” 

With this project Ambrose has important lessons to impart, “I want to encapsulate the interconnectivity of all beings that is entrenched within our spiritual laws as Nehiyawak. I want to utilize notions of traditional storytelling into the modern landscape of amiskwacy, to show that we have an active role to play in healing the earth and ultimately healing ourselves.”