Concrete Gesture, 2018
Concrete Gesture is a performance/gesture that speaks to the labour of Indigenous peoples, and their allies, who are on the front lines across this continent protecting the land from exploitation and devastation.
In recent years construction sites have over taken Halifax’s downtown core. Construction zones are public spaces where waste accumulates; construction by-products, marking tape, bits of wires and wood, as well as food packaging, paper cups and plastic lids add up to form clusters of garbage seemingly ignored by the construction companies and passersby. These sites and the public space around them are also notoriously unsafe for women and non-binary folks.
My uniform will be a florescent vest, hardhat, headlamp, and steel-toed work boots embellished with Metis flower motifs, in both paint and beading. By using my adorned body, as an Indigenous woman, I am blatantly inserting myself into those spaces.
A small gesture in a concrete city, but rooted in care and concern for Mother Earth. A public acknowledgment of the labour of Indigenous peoples, and their allies, who are on the front lines across this continent protecting the land from exploitation and devastation.
Photo credit: Séamus Gallagher
