2010-2011 Lab residency

Emily Johnson – Niicugni (Listen)

Emily Johnson is creating a new performance installation, “Niicugni (Listen).” It is envisioned as a dance for four performers, housed within a light and sound installation made of hanging fish-skin sculptures. These fish-skin lanterns will hang from the ceiling, cover the entire stage, and eventually rise out of sight.  "Niicugni" will be performed and created by Emily Johnson Sound in collaboration with multi-instrumentalist James Everest and violinist and electronic musician Bethany Lacktorin and dancer Aretha Aoki.

VPL is supporting the development of “Niicugni ” through two creative residency periods in Vermont (August 2010 and January 2011). “Niicugni” is the second in a trilogy of works related to Johnson’s Yup'ik heritage and the personal confluences of cultural traditions and contemporary performance work. In addition to supporting Ms. Johnson through its Lab Program, VPL is pleased to be presenting “The Thank You Bar” in June 2011, Johnson’s first work in her trilogy.  This performance installation is centered on movement, story, and sound, housed within a light and sound installation made of hanging fish-skin sculptures.  Fish-skin sewing is an Alaska Native art form whereby the skin is prepared, dried, and sewn to create clothing, functional vessels, and art. The installation and set design will be made of transparent, round fish-skin lanterns with speakers inside. The fish-skin vessels hang from the ceiling in a pattern covering the entire stage area and will have the capability to lift and lower during the performance. Audiences will walk through the installation as they exit the theater.

In the process of creating the work in Vermont, local participants will both infuse the work with the locality of Southern Vermont and be engaged and influenced by Johnson and the issues around native peoples, land, home and displacement that she raises in her work.

The winter 2011 residency in Vermont will focus on creating the fish-skin lantern sculptures and experimenting with the sound installation. Johnson, along with Abenaki artist and master basket maker Judy Dow, will work with an inter-generational group of hand-workers from the local community to form a New England style sewing bee around the project.   In this process, traces of Vermont will be infused into the piece through the handiwork of local sewers as they create lanterns for “Niicugni.” Johnsons project will bring to life some of the very real issues effecting Native Alaskan and Native American communities in the U.S..