Double Gazebo by Native Art Department International

In With Artists, Maria and Jason of NADI, deploying reflective mylar, clear acetate, and spray paint, performed an unannounced action and had some fun with the Double Gazebo (Markham). A gesture that counters the expected making of site-specificity, a common idea prevalent in the field of public art, transforming the structure into a place with its own terms, in anticipating the installation’s next variant, Double Gazebo (MOCA). The resulting video in documentary style was ­filmed and edited by artist Liang Yue, with the assistance of Man Yi.

In With Movement, fancy shawl dancer Deanne Hupfield shares pow wow dancing, a high intensity expressive art form rooted in Indigenous wellbeing. Hupfield says "dancing is a way to think about hard things in our lives, move through them, and feel better after." She wears a gold jingle dress, which she made at the start of the pandemic. Hupfield used the process of making the dress as a vehicle to manage mental stress and build inner strength after stepping up to care for her family of seven during the lockdown in downtown Toronto. The "WW" pattern on the dress serves as a reminder to be her own Wonder Woman. The sound made by the gold jingles matches her movements, to compliment the spirit of “Double Gazebo”, adding a rhythmic and embodied sonic element, and active visual presence. The resulting documentary-style performative dance for video was filmed and edited by artist Liang Yue, with the assistance of Man Yi.

Deanne Hupfield is Anishnaabe from the Temagami First Nation in Ontario. A descendant of Indian Residential School survivors, she dedicates her life to learning about and preserving her culture. She started dancing at a young age and has spent her life passing on related teachings to her community. Hupfield has taught dance for the past 20 years, including weekend classes at The Native Canadian Center of Toronto. As an educator, she actively teaches the history of the Canadian policies that affect Indigenous people.

Coming soon. Launch on September 29, 2021.

In With Sound, Mark V. Campbell/DJ Grumps created a seven-minute audio journey titled Relations, in which he puts to use a remix aesthetic to bring into conversation the dynamisms of three musical genres: soca, pow wow two step, and roots reggae. Moving between originals, remixes, samples, and original production, Grumps amplifies the relationality at the heart of Double Gazebo, signifying the power of sound to represent immaterial possibilities. This sonic exploration ruptures and relates categories, cultures, and differences as mediated through the technological possibilities of turntables and digital music making.

As DJ Grumps, Mark V. Campbell spent the last two decades as a DJ and the past ten years as a Curator. His mixes and remixes ooze afrosonic life.

In With Star Knowledge, the final episode of the series, Maria Hupfield and Jason Lujan, the artists behind NADI, undertook a conversation with astronomer Dr. Hilding Neilson. Unfolded under the moonlight on a beach by the water, the impromptu conversation takes our relationship with the moon and the stars in the sky its point of departure. Flowing from Indigenous knowledge to astronomy to the physics of the Universe, the conversation considers how we study the universe and how we are related to it, from bodily, intellectual, cultural, and philosophical perspectives. As the saying goes, every star tells a story.

To read the conversation transcript, click HERE.

Dr. Hilding Neilson is an interdisciplinary scientist, working on astrophysics and on the intersection of science, astronomy, and Indigenous knowledge. As a Mi’kmaw person, Neilson strives to embrace and integrate Indigenous knowledges and methodologies to better understand the physics of stars and the Universe and our place within it. More specifically, he probes the physics of stars. From the nuclear-burning core out to the circumstellar medium where stellar winds interact with the interstellar medium, Neilson seeks to understand connections between stars and planets; stars and cosmology; and stars and us. Neilson exploits theoretical and numerical tools, and compares these with observational data sets, to reveal the hidden physics of stars. He enjoys teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as participating in public outreach and science communication.