BERIC MANYWOUNDS
Tsanizid, 2019
single channel HD video
6 minutes, 10 seconds
Kamloops Art Gallery
Alley behind TNRD building
In the contemporary dance work, Tsanizid, Beric Manywounds presents a Two Spirit transformation journey and metamorphosis. Situated amidst the full moon, the night, and the first thunderstorm of spring, which marks the new year, a dancer ventures into the unknown in search of new beginnings. Through an exploration of the spiritual terrain of being a multi-gender being, this work offers a space of healing. Manywounds gives shape and form to their futurist visions of Indigenous performance art and decolonized representations of gender by hybridizing performative video and contemporary dance
In their practice, Manywounds asks: What does it means to reclaim sexuality and decolonize Two Spirit identity? How does this reclamation intersect with contemporary queer culture in the metropolis? Presenting a mesmerizing doubling of the artist’s body, Tsanizid (or “wake up” when translated from Tsuut’ina Dene) emerges from the fractured relationships to land, community and safety, and reflects a return to something whole. It presents a portrait of a celestial psychic space, and a reintegration of the sacred and spiritual.
Through ecstatic expressive dance and the driving beat of music, a multiplicity of beings emerge and coexist in a realm outside and away that cannot be wounded or taken away. The spiritual realm that Manywounds shares brings enchantment and protection. This emergence of self affirms a deep connection to spirit and self, which, for Manywounds, are integral for a connection to community and land. The dark, yet luminous environment in which they dance, exists as an interspace between gender and spirit. Healing, in this journey, takes place through movement, image, and sound.
Artist Biography
Beric Manywounds is a Two Spirit writer, filmmaker, and intermedia performance artist from the Tsuut'ina Nation of Treaty 7 in the area also known as Alberta. With a background predominantly in film and video, Manywounds has been creating filmic narratives since graduating from Capilano University’s Indigenous Independent Digital Filmmaking Program in 2010. Taking a special interest in the genres of fantasy, horror, and magical realism, their films explore post-trauma consciousness and spiritual transformation. Manywounds is also now a graduate of the Intermedia Cyber Arts program at Concordia University in Montreal (Tiohtià:ke).
A D D I T I O N A L R E S O U R C E S
Beric Manywounds
Tsanizid, 2019
single channel HD video
6 minutes, 10 seconds
Photos: Frank Luca, 2023