( x ) x + [ ( x ) x { x } x x ] { x } +, 2016

Written By Kite .

Image credit: Iris Ray

Description: 

Comprising an installation and a performance, the work ( x ) x + [ ( x ) x { x } x x ] { x } + (pronounced “Sources”) explores the relationship between the artist’s body and the entanglement of lies, fiction, oral history, mythology, and ethnography that surround Lakota religion. Developed from an obsessive hyper-structure and information derived from “poor” sourcebooks, the project delves into attempts to qualify Oglala religion into structural and clarified terms. Four female characters who have shaped the Lakota cosmology of the present—Škan, Falling Star, Double Face and Sacred White Buffalo Calf Woman—are conjured through leather and carbon-fibre sculptures, animation, sound composed by Kite and Aerial, home video, wearable sculptures and technologies, scores and movement. The differences between telling stories, telling lies, and creating fiction are wrapped up in the precarious status of a display labeled as "Lakota."


Artworks:

PERFORMANCE/INSTALLATION | 15 MINUTES | MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE PIECE, WITH PROJECTIONS FOR 4 GALLERY WALLS AND GALLERY FLOOR.


( x ) x + [ ( x ) x { x } x x ] { x } + , performance, Kite, 2016.
Documentation: Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Jackson Polys), Wayside LA (Iris Ray), Sightings, Concordia University (Robin Simpson).

( x ) x + [ ( x ) x { x } x x ] { x } + , multimedia installation, Kite, 2016. Includes four sculptures, four paintings, six videos, and various acetate signage.

Kite .

Kite (Dr. Suzanne Kite) is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition,and an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from Concordia University, Montreal. Kite’s scholarship and practice investigate contemporary Lakȟóta ontologies through research-creation, computational media, and performance, often working in collaboration with family and community members. Recently, Kite has been developing body interfaces for machine learning driven performance and sculptures generated by dreams, and experimental sound and video work. Kite has published in The Journal of Design and Science (MIT Press), with the award winning article, “Making Kin with Machines,” co-authored with Jason Lewis, Noelani Arista, and Archer Pechawis. Kite is currently a 2023 Creative Capital Award Winner, 2023 USA Fellow, and a 2022-2023 Creative Time Open Call artist with Alisha B. Wormsley. Kite is currently Distinguished Artist in Residence and Assistant Professor of American and Indigenous Studies, Bard College and a Research Associate and Residency Coordinator for the Abundant Intelligences (Indigenous AI) project.

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