Many Vancouver arts festivals take pride in burnishing their progressive credentials. But few can claim to be as radically inclusive as the Vines Art Festival. It has been at the forefront of advancing land, water, and relational justice since it was launched in 2015 by artistic director Heather Lamoureux.
All events are free at the 10th annual Vines Art Festival, which will be presented in various Vancouver parks this month. True to form, it will open at St’ít’eweḵw’ | Stanley Park (Second Beach) on Wednesday (August 7) with an event called Keep Giving; Cedars and Shells. This was created in partnership with Neworld Theatre.
Keep Giving: Cedars and Shells features interdisciplinary artist, storyteller, and Indigenous ethnobotanist T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, among other artists. Her ethnobotanist daughter, Senaqwila Wyss, will join Manuel Axel Strain, Mary Point, Amanda Strain in the opening at 6:10 p.m.
At 6:25 p.m., xʷməθkʷəy̓əm/ Irish singer-songwriter May Point-Shaw will unveil a music project, stelliumPoint. According to the Vines Art Festival website, Point-Shaw is “inspired by themes of self-introspection, existentialism, queer love and therefore queer heartbreak”.
Point-Shaw will be followed at 6:50 p.m. by third-generation kirtan singer Naad Yogi Gurnimit Singh. The Chandigarh-raised Indian classical vocalist trained in the Agra Gharana. He is also a Level 2 Kundalini yoga instructor.
Kirtan is a Sanskrit word that means narrating or telling a story or reciting or describing an idea. Kirtan singing is a way of expressing devotion to a deity in a call-and-response style. Sometimes, it’s accompanied by acting.
Vines fest addresses archetype of the snake
The festival’s opening night will also feature Mexican-born, Vancouver-based choreographer Salome Nieto. Her research into contemporary dance takes into account ritual and ceremony. Last year, she earned an SFU MFA in interdisciplinary arts.
At the Vines Art Festival, she will present you say I’m a snake?
“The snake has a fundamental meaning and importance: it symbolizes fertility, fecundity, harmony, and connection with the earth,” Nieto says on the Vines Art Festival website. “With this ancestral archetype of the snake, I reconnect with my cultural lineage, redeeming her image and rejecting the idea imposed by colonialism, patriarchy and Catholicism associated with women as a source of sin.”
She goes on to suggest changing consciousness by dressing in the snake’s skin. This can serve as a means to rediscover oneself “with all the potential that femininity houses”.
“Skin change is healing,” Nieto declares. “We peel our skin to leave the past and renew ourselves.”
In addition, there will be installations on-site by various local artists, including Victoria Marie’s Reclaiming Ancestral Cosmologies. It’s a series of paintings representing the cosmologies of ancestors that showed up in Marie’s DNA results.
Meanwhile, T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss will offer a presentation at 8:10 p.m., followed by Miranda Dick, Segwses Strain, and Gwa & family at 8:35 p.m. The event will close with Kalli van Stone at 9:10 p.m.
The Vines Art Festival runs from August 7 to 17. Learn more about other events on its website. Follow Pancouver on X (formerly Twitter) @PancouverMedia and on Instagram @PancouverMedia.
