SOGI MAI (2016)

1 minute, 20 seconds

Single-channel HD video

16:9, colour, sound

This performance video work features the artist exploring liminal spaces of intimacy through the practice of sogi (so-ngi) with peers from diverse backgrounds. The sacred sharing of breath to greet and affirm each other’s mana, cumulative energy and presence, the gesture of sogi is here reference to treading lightly in the mountains and valleys of Blackfoot, Stoney Nakota and Tsuu T’ina territory within Banff National Park.

SOGI MAI is intended as a reference to the gradual revival of this practice within diasporic and homeland Indigenous Sāmoan communities, and speaks to spaces of fleeting intimacy and connection that can be established between different people in a given place and time. SOGI MAI includes the participation of Frédéric Bigras-Burrogano, Suzanne Kite, Devin Ronneberg, KC Adams, John Player, Nicotye Samayualie and the artist Léuli Eshraghi.

This work was produced during the 2016 Indigenous Visual + Digital Arts Residency, supported by the RBC Emerging Artist Award at The Banff Centre, located in Blackfoot, Stoney Nakota and Tsuu T’ina territories in Canada.

Siapo viliata et d’autres récits du vivant animée par Nayla Naoufal du Festival Accès Asie en partenariat avec le MAI et le Festival Filministes, Cinéma Moderne (2024), Montréal

Trilogie de cendres (no2) La prochaine fois, le feu commissariée par Marion Duquerroy et Thomas Fort, FRAC des Pays de la Loire (2022), Carquefou et Nantes

Trilogie de cendres (no1) Ta langue une allumette qui craque commissariée par Marion Duquerroy et Thomas Fort, FRAC des Pays de la Loire (2022), Carquefou et Nantes

Léuli Eshrāghi and Jessica Karuhanga: Projections cur. Gary Varro, 8th Performatorium Festival of Queer Performance and 17th Queer City Cinema Film Festival, Dunlop Art Gallery - Regina Public Library (2022), Regina