Curated by Lorena Wolffer
May 13, 2000
Lorena Wolffer (Guest Curator)
The event begins with a dinner party at the Hotel Saskatchewan, Radisson Plaza in the Regency Ballroom at 6 pm. Performance starts at 8 pm.
Introduction
Lorena Wolffer turns the fashion runway into a political gangplank. A Mexican performance artist who challenges US/Mexican relations and the status of women in Mexico, Wolffer is invited to Neutral Ground in Regina to examine parallel issues in Canada. Canadian artists model the Belle Rogue Collection, spotlighting the links between heterosexual passion and state function on the transnational runway.
“Wolffer’s performance complicates the isolationist plot of Woman-as-nation. In particular, it foregrounds a Sedgwickian ‘between men’ subterranean component of (neo)colonialisms and competing nationalisms, where the battered figure of Woman stands in as a kind of short hand for the ‘bully-sissy’ relationship of the(neo)colonizer and colonized, where woman as the object of exchange solidifies the transnational circuitry of capital, forging frequently involuntary ‘kinship’ ties between nation states.” (Amy Sara Carroll, excerpt from Detected Friction: Lorena Wolffer Performance of Allegorical Shame and the Woman Nation)
Belle Rogue Collection, an international residency and performance art project, will took the form of a runway fashion show, and included performances by Lorena Wolffer, Lori Blondeau, Michele Sereda, Val Kinistino, Lori Weidenhammer, Robin Brass, Anna Scott, Carolyn Meili, Sarah McGaughey, Jessie Dishaw, & Joelle Ciona.
Credits
Runaway Performers
Miss Mexico (Lorena Wolffer)
Space Woman (Anna Scott)
Heavy Metal Buffalo Soldier (Val Kinistino)
Tumbleweed Woman: A Natural Phenomenon of Political Forces (Carolyn Meili)
Polar Bear Waitress (Lori Weidenhammer)
Dr. XX (Joelle Ciona)
Mining Dog (Robin Brass) in collaboration with Robin Poitras
Stephanie and Jessica (Sarah & Jessie)
Chchch Shhh (Michele Sereda)
Cosmosquaw (Lori Blondeau) in collaboration with Bradlee LaRocque
Brenda Cleniuk
Crew
David Jonasson, Technical Director
Shane Eason
