Redalyc. Performing Aboriginality at the Venice Biennale: The
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Revista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses (nueva época) Asociación Mexicana de Estudios sobre Canadá, A.C. [email protected] ISSN (Versión impresa): 1405-8251 MÉXICO 2007 Carla Taunton PERFORMING ABORIGINALITY AT THE VENICE BIENNALE: THE PERFORMANCE ART OF REBECA BELMORE AND JAMES LUNA Revista Mexicana de Estudios Canadienses (nueva época), primavera-verano, número 013 Asociación Mexicana de Estudios sobre Canadá, A.C. Culiacán, México pp. 55-68 Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México http://redalyc.uaemex.mx PERFORMING ABORIGINALITY AT THE VENICE BIENNALE: THE PERFORMANCE ART OF REBECA BELMORE AND JAMES LUNA1 CARLA TAUNTON Abstract This paper explores the performative art indigenous artists James Luna and Rebecca Belmore. In 2005, Rebecca Belmore was selected as Canada’s representative at the venerable interna- tional art exhibition, the Venice Biennale. Concurrently, James Luna represented the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. Belmore’s Fountain and Luna’s Emendatio biennale specific performances will be the starting point for this discussion. The site of performance is examined as a space for indigenous intervention. Belmore and Luna’s performance art is examined as a contribution to the discourse of Aboriginal sovereignty. I will examine their performance practices as high-tech storytelling, illustrating the fusion of tradi- tions of Aboriginal storytelling with practices of mainstream performance art. Their perfor- mances will be explored as a decolonizing artistic practice, staging sites for cultural resis- tance. Key words: Performance, art history, Venice biennale, Canadian art. y discussion today is an exploration of the performance art of Rebecca MBelmore and James Luna. It centers on a discussion of storytelling, sug- gesting that the act of telling a story or rather the story itself as a possible theo- retical framework in which to navigate some of the performances and other aesthetic expressions of contemporary Aboriginal artists. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the complexities of Aboriginal performance art and its rela- tionship to high-tech storytelling. By ‘high-tech,’ I do not mean to associate the practice with the ‘high tech industry,’ but to show the impact contemporary society has had on the storytelling practice of Belmore and Luna. High-tech storytelling incorporates additional props, such as audio recordings and visual RMEC / núm. 13 / primavera-verano / 2007 REVISTA MEXICANA DE ESTUDIOS CANADIENSES projections, which are not used in traditional storytelling practices. I argue that their role as high-tech storyteller pushes the boundaries of oratory traditions, not only through the content of their narratives, but also in the use of multiple props to articulate their story. Through this, Belmore and Luna both affirm the signifi- cance of Aboriginal oral traditions, all the while challenging the absence of recognition of storytelling as a legitimate his story. It is important to recognize that in Aboriginal communities the story has long been a vehicle for resistance, employed as a strategy for cultural survival. This suggests that storytelling is a method of intervention. The relationships between storytelling and performance art will be discussed to create a foundation for navigation of the performance practice of James Luna and Rebecca Belmore, thereby supporting my argument that they use the story for political intervention and protest. Their storytelling practices participate in a larger discourse of tradi- tions of Aboriginal oratory. The site of performance will be examined as a space for indigenous intervention, elucidating these artists’ roles as social activists who employ performance art and storytelling to reclaim and re-envision silenced histories and the identities of indigenous peoples in North America. Although these two artists, Luna a Luiseño Native American and Belmore an Anishinabe 56 First Nations of Canada come from very different cultural traditions they are connected by their use of performance art to vocalize Aboriginal lived experi- ence. Recently, in 2005, Rebecca Belmore became the first Aboriginal woman to be selected as Canada’s representative at the venerable international art exhibi- tion, the Venice Biennale. Concurrently, James Luna represented the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian at the same event. Are these selec- tions by national arts organizations and institutions a catalyst for more develop- ment and change within the climate of Aboriginal political and cultural dis- courses? Belmore and Luna’s presence at Venice raises many questions about the socio-political history of Aboriginal culture in the Canadian and American con- texts. Whether these events are a catalyst for change or political tokenism, the performances Belmore and Luna contributed reflect their personal artistic prac- tices and their use of performance art as a platform to articulate indigenous histories. Belmore and Luna’s performance art is examined as a contribution to the discourse of Aboriginal sovereignty, reclaiming Aboriginal identities from Eurocentric colonial representations and popular culture’s stereotypes. Their performances share Aboriginal stories and colonial histories to negotiate an indigenized space for discussion of indigenous perspectives; examined to show how their work negotiates decolonized spaces for the continuation of indigenous PERFORMING ABORIGINALITY AT THE VENICE BIENNALE... stories. Their performances will be explored as a decolonizing artistic practice, staging sites for cultural resistance. Belmore’s Fountain and Luna’s Emendatio will be the starting point for my discussion today. To set the stage Rebecca Belmore’s Fountain is a video-based performance that was projected onto a screen of falling water. Belmore performance site is an island hundreds of meters from Vancouver’s International Airport and across the river from the Musqueam First Nations reserve. It is also the site of a sewer treatment centre. The site, as in most of Belmore’s performances, plays an im- portant element as meaning maker. The Fraser River separates her performance site (Sea Island) and the Musqueam reserve which is continuously used by the First Nations for fishing. The site is Aboriginal land–now being used for the treatment of sewage and local, national, and international travel. As a site of travel, it signifies European ‘discovery’ and tourist expeditions, colonial expan- sion, as well as the increase of connectivity through technology and the impact of globalization. I read her position as an Aboriginal woman at this site as an intervention and her performance as the vehicle for reclaiming but also for ex- pressing indigenous experience. Perhaps she is re-mapping the traditional lands of the Musqueam–most of which are now part of the city landscape of Vancouver. In this performance, Belmore’s actions and site create the narratives of her 57 story. She struggles to emerge from the cold water of the Pacific Ocean with a metal bucket in hand. She walks up the beach away from the tide and throws the bucket of water which turns to blood. The sequence of physical actions con- cludes with the viewer witnessing Belmore standing with eyes fixed through a film of blood. Fountain tells many stories–stories of aboriginality, colonialism and the ambiguities of the post-colonial. This piece reflects Belmore’s larger body of work which comments on both her local and Aboriginal communities, such as her recent Vancouver based performance and video-based Vigil: The Named and the Unnamed (2002). Both of these performances give voice to the silenced experiences of Aboriginal peoples. An additional similarity to Fountain is how this performance was recorded and projected onto a large screen; creat- ing an installation out of a performance. Drawing on Belmore’s inclusion of fire and candles in Vigil she attaches light-bulbs on the screen arguably signify acts of mourning, giving light, healing, exposure and the impact of European so-called progressive modern developments (in this case being the light bulb). Here, she is telling a contemporary story, expressing the harsh urban realities of Aboriginal women. This performance honours the women who have disappeared from the downtown Eastside of Vancouver, a large number of whom were Aboriginal sex trade workers (Townsend-Gault, 2002). On the streets of east Vancouver Belmore yelled out the names of the missing women. She created a vigil-like scene. Her inclusion of oratory reinforces her intention to give voice to the silenced and REVISTA MEXICANA DE ESTUDIOS CANADIENSES to give recognition to oral stories–in doing so she created a record of this contemporary history. In this work, Belmore is explicitly vocalizing a ‘public secret,’ forcing recognition of the missing women (Townsend-Gault, 2002). The record is in the memories of all who witnessed her performance and installa- tion. It articulates an aspect of the urban Aboriginal women’s experience, re- asserting their identities and voices. Rebecca Belmore is among the first Cana- dian Aboriginal performance artists to receive extensive attention in the late 1980s–for her politically vocal performance practice–Fountain is a continuum of her practice of performative oratory as a vehicle for indigenous resistance and intervention. James Luna’s Venice Biennale performance, Emandatio (2005), was com- posed of one performance and two installations. The Chapel for Pablo Tac and Apparitions: