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.
Trilogie de cendres (no2) La prochaine fois, le feu // Artiste // 29 mai-17 juillet 2022
FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou / Nantes FR
Trilogie de cendres (no1) Ta langue une allumette qui craque // Artiste // 20 avril-22 mai 2022
FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou FR
Léuli Eshrāghi and Jessica Karuhanga: Projections curated by Gary Varro, 8th Performatorium Festival of Queer Performance and 17th Queer City Cinema Film Festival, 25 September 2021-7 January 2022
Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina Public Library SK