The Contrary Collective: Little Big Man Remix

Additional Information

Together, artists Ulysses Castellanos, Cathy Gordon and Terrance Houle reimagine and recreate the 1970 Hollywood film Little Big Man as a new media performance. No simple narrative, the work is a dizzying visual and auditory spectacle that incorporates elements of performance art, dance, video projections, sound art, noise and punk rock, creating a series of difficult images that are both aggressive and poignant. The work examines the complexities of cultural, sexual, religious, and gender identities as they are formed and performed, the legacy of colonial violence and its representation in Hollywood cinema. The crux of the performance focuses on the dual nature of the traitor/ally as personified by the historical chief Little Big Man and the fictitious Dustin Hoffman character of the same name.

Little Big Man Remix was developed in residency at The Association for Native Development in the Performing and Visual Arts (ANDPVA) at the invitation of ANDPVA Executive Director Wanda Nanibush, and made its debut in Toronto as part of ANDPVA's House of Wayward Sprits festival of indigenous performance.

About the Collective:

The Contrary Collective is comprised of Toronto artists Ulysses Castellanos and Cathy Gordon together with Calgary artist Terrance Houle. The collective's name refers to a social designation in Plains culture a "Contrary" was a member of a tribal group whose behavior and mannerisms were deliberately opposite of others. The Contrary is related, in part, to the clown organizations and reverse warriors who were a part of traditional Plains societies. However, the clown's social role was ceremonial, and the reverse warrior's contrarian efforts were restricted to the battlefield, while the Contrary's everyday life was lived in opposition to social norms.

The Contrary Collective, Little Big Man Remix, 2012.