Carrying Patterns: Sound and Gesture

Ange Loft (Kanien’kehá:ka, from Kahnawà:ke, QC, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) is an interdisciplinary performing artist. Her collaborations use arts based research, voice, wearable sculpture, theatrical co-creation and Haudenosaunee history to facilitate workshops and community-engaged spectacle. She was the director of the Talking Treaties initiative and co-author of A Treaty Guide for Torontonians (2022). Ange was the inaugural Indigenous Research Fellow at the Centre for Canadian Architecture (2023), Indigenous Artist in Residence at Centaur Theatre (22-25) and Barker Fairley Distinguished Visitor at University College (2023/24). Ange received the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Indigenous Artist Award in 2023.

Olivia Shortt (they/them; Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation, Ireland) is a weirdo, noisemaker, video artist, wannabe fashion icon, curator, and composer.

Shortt has been described as a “glittering, rising star in the exploratory music firmament” by Musicworks Magazine and named by the CBC as one of “6 Indigenous composers you need to know in 2024”. Shortt has performed at The Whitney Biennial (NYC), The Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (Washington, DC). Iconic moments include appearing and playing saxophone on CBC Kids’ ‘Gary the Unicorn’ and lending their voice off-screen in Stephen King’s ‘In the Tall Grass’ and Season 3 of ‘Chucky’.