Wičháȟpi Wóihaŋbleya (Dreamlike Star)

Wičháȟpi Wóihaŋbleya, a solo performance by multimedia artist and composer Kite, translates dreams into images, poetry, music, and dance.

“Every moment of decision, every act of creation,” Kite has written, is a “collaboration between stars and stones, the macro and the micro, the movement of the cosmos and Spirit World and the physical reality of earth and stones.” This understanding is reflected in her installation Wičháȟpi Wóihaŋbleya, the centerpiece of her ongoing List Projects exhibition and the stage for a gallery performance of the same title. To create the work, the artist used designer Sadie Red Wing’s “shape kit” to translate three months of her dreams into Lakȟóta visual language, a geometric lexicon traditionally used in Lakȟóta women’s quillwork. She then reconfigured these symbols into a score that recurs throughout the exhibition: as a stone sculpture on a mirrored floor, an animated video projection, and a vinyl print on the wall. The score has served as the basis of a series of performances, including a musical realization for orchestra and a multimedia performance by the artist herself. 

For the solo performance, Kite worked with choreographer Olivia Camfield (Muscogee) to assign a movement to each symbol in the Lakȟóta shape kit. Kite stands among the stones and traces a path through the score with her body. Sensors on her body and on a long strand of braided hair capture her movement and modulate the installation’s video and audio, programmed by Sean Hellfritsch. The performance incorporates recordings of an orchestral interpretation of the score and poetry by Kite, as well as imagery of stars, stones, and earth. Just as the installation employs mirroring and symmetry as Lakȟóta visual strategies, the performance has a chiastic structure: Once the artist reaches the center, she repeats her movements in reverse, and the ending returns to mirror the beginning.

Registration details will be released soon. Please note that capacity in the Bakalar Gallery is highly limited, and registration does not guarantee entry.