Earn your Sash… or maybe… Well I got that under my Sash
Project_As a white-passing Métis person Jesse Fulcher Gagnon is on a journey of self discovery. In an effort to allow himself to explore this part of his identity within his practice, he loosely (and somewhat humorously) revisits Descartes' famous phrase. In this project “I think therefore I am” becomes “I am Métis therefore I am Métis.” Thus, allowing himself to simply be Métis because he is Métis.
This project brings together 1,050 video performances, created five times a day, six days a week, over an eight-month period. Compiled digitally, they give shape to his first Métis ceinture fléchée. Each day, Jesse Fulcher Gagnon performs a piece for each of the colors of a traditional belt, according to his own interpretation: red (body), blue (rest), white (introspection), green (eating), yellow (living).
Bio_Jesse Fulcher Gagnon is a Métis experimental artist who works across mediums. He is a theatre rat, dabbling in sound design, acting, directing, stage managing, and teaching. His work in theatre focuses primarily on Theatre for Young Audience projects, taking on such roles as a ladybug, a cow, a bison, a rock, a bug and a corner—like the corner of a square.
Outside of the theatre, he holds an MFA in Studio Art and maintains a studio practice that combines performance and installations, projections and animations, or junk food and bad jokes. His practice includes frequently teaching at the University of Saskatchewan as a sessional lecturer in both the Visual Art and Drama Departments. His work is supported by the Fransaskois Cultural Council, the Association of Francophone Theaters of Canada (ATFC), and Power Corporation of Canada.
Approach_Jesse Fulcher Gagnon explores themes of repetition and the self through pieces that blur the line between art and entertainment. His visual art and theatre practices are intimately linked, leading him to take on only theatre projects that are aligned with his visual arts practice. This specificity in projects allows for all of his forms of making to be seen as one body of work and, as such, offers an insight into just how connected these two worlds are.
As a bilingual Métis artist working this way in the prairies, his practice creates a dialogue.
