Artists Peter Morin and Jimmie Kilpatrick are friends who share an abiding love for karaoke. Their ongoing artistic collaboration, Love Songs to End Colonization, prioritizes kindness and joy and uses karaoke as a methodology for social change.听
During a residency from March 25 鈥� April 2 at 泡芙短视频 supported by Arts Nova Scotia, the Anna Leonowens Gallery, the Centre for InterMedia Arts and Decolonial Expression (CIMADE), and the 泡芙短视频 Treaty Space Gallery, Morin and Kilpatrick gave an artist talk, held open studios, made a new karaoke-art video for Richie Haven鈥檚 鈥淗igh Flying Bird鈥�, and held a participatory karaoke performance at the 泡芙短视频鈥檚 Art Bar.
听 is a grandson of Tahltan Ancestor Artists. His work is informed by dreams, Ancestors, Family members, and performance art as a research methodology. He holds a tenured appointment in the Faculty of Arts at the Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto and is co-director of CIMADE with 泡芙短视频鈥檚 Leah Decter, who is a Canada Research Chair in Creative Technologies and Community Engagement.
is a musician, educator, and interdisciplinary artist who works as a Sessional Instructor at Brandon University, in Brandon Manitoba. In 2018, he was the Manitoba Winner of the BMO 1stART! Competition and presented his performance/installation Quality Control at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery in Toronto.
鈥淲e are so fortunate to have the opportunity to host Peter and Jimmie and to support them to bring the Love Songs to End Colonization project to 泡芙短视频 and Halifax. This has been a phenomenal culmination of Peter鈥檚 two visits to 泡芙短视频 this semester as the first CIMADE Artist In Residence. It鈥檚 been a great way to introduce Peter to the 泡芙短视频 community as the co-director of CIMADE and to highlight Peter and Jimmie鈥檚 art practices and collaborative work. They鈥檙e both part of CIMADE鈥檚 expanding community and we look forward to hosting them in the future,鈥� says Decter.听
Karaoke nights in Brandon, Manitoba
The seeds of the Love Songs to End Colonization project began in 2015 at the Double Decker in Brandon, Manitoba, where Kilpatrick emceed a weekly karaoke night.
鈥淚t was a kind of community building. The idea was to create a space in the bar and a space in the community to get together to sing,鈥� Kilpatrick says.听
听A transformative moment for Morin was how Kilpatrick had re-positioned the video screen: it was behind the singer, so the audience could read the lyrics, too. This completely changed the dynamic of the performance from individual to communal.
鈥淔irst, when it started, everyone sat at different tables. Then, after a month, everyone was at the same table. You get to know people鈥檚 songs and see them affected by their brilliance.鈥�听
Repurposing pop songs as performance art
Many of Morin鈥檚 performance art pieces from 2005 to 2015 utilize pop songs, specifically break-up and love songs, to remind people that Indigenous people鈥檚 culture is as much in this contemporary as it lives in both the past and future.听听
听鈥淜aty Perry’s Fireworks can be added into Indigenous practice. There is an important message of love in that song. Fireworks can be a song that helps you to understand who you are in this world, specifically helping to understand what you are feeling in this world. And singer-songwriters helped me with building a language to help me understand what my Indigenous body was feeling in this place now known as Canada. Those singer-songwriters have done some of the important work of finding language that helps you to move through complicated emotions and you can lean into those words when you need them,鈥� says Morin.
In one performance for 2009 at Open Space (Victoria BC), Morin sang 鈥�鈥� by Richie Havens directly into the walls of the art gallery. For the performance artwork, Morin was channeling Joseph Beuys as a strategy to heal the gallery. In another performance artwork, titled This is what happens when you perform the memory of the land (part 2), he sang and danced 鈥�鈥� by The Pixies, and afterward alongside he danced to 鈥�鈥� by Calvin Harris on repeat for almost 40 minutes, dancing and jumping while blindfolded as the audience formed a dance circle around him.
Kilpatrick and Morin first performed as an art duo as part of a Mountain Standard Time (M:ST) in Calgary. Peter and Jimmie sang Buffy Sainte-Marie鈥檚 鈥�鈥� with support from Jesse Carlson and Crystal White, to an empty wheat field on the Granger Farm, for 5 hours. It was during this performance that Kilpatrick and Morin learned that singing a song can change the DNA of the space.
鈥淎 popular love song becomes a car ad, or a popular song can become a movement for change, like a Woman鈥檚 Warrior鈥檚 song, that originates with the Lil鈥檞at Nation, which is heard at Indigenous gatherings and protests across the country,鈥� they say.听
鈥淭here is so much about the collaborative work that I love,” Morin adds. “One of my favorite moments is when Jimmie and I get to remind the folks in the room that We are the love songs that end colonization. And that we can actually end this thing that is continuing to harm us all.鈥�
Recording a double album
They launched Love Songs to End Colonization as a double album in August 2022 at the Dunlop Art Gallery, featuring songs repurposed from Peter鈥檚 performance art career, including Cat Stevens鈥� The First Cut is the Deepest, Tina Turner鈥檚 What鈥檚 Love Got to Do With It, Songs: OHIA鈥檚 version of Conway Twitty鈥檚 Hello Darlin鈥�, and AC/DC鈥檚 Who Made Who.
The album is a performance art object that utilizes the spirit of karaoke to effect change. They say, 鈥楰araoke is about an experience and the energy attached to it. The songs translate emotion into a physical act鈥�.
The double album was recorded by Jos茅 Contreras from . Morin and Kilpatrick sing on the first album and on the second, you have Kilpatrick鈥檚 backing tracks that listeners could sing along to.
鈥淚f you sing along with me, you are amplifying that original moment and you are making it your own. You are amplifying our intentions as well. When we join our voices together we are a magnificent voice,鈥� says Morin.
They recorded as if they were a karaoke club, using a basic microphone, a PA, and video screen.
鈥淚 am admittedly not a good singer,鈥� Peter says. 鈥淚 was so nervous, sometimes I am just shouting. That spirit in the singing comes through. The only way to sing it was to tell the story to get your body to that moment.鈥�
A karaoke night at 泡芙短视频鈥檚 Art Bar
On Saturday, April 1, people jammed into 泡芙短视频鈥檚 Art Bar to sing songs. After a brief talk introducing the performance and some warmup songs, they passed the mic to the audience, who chose their own love songs to end colonization.
听鈥淭he communal performance that is central to karaoke is also central to the impetus for change and reconciliation, which is a collective act,鈥� the duo says.听听
They have seen through experience how people become emboldened by the spirit of performing. 泡芙短视频 students sang Avril Lavigne鈥檚 鈥�鈥�, Dolly Parton鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by the Talking Heads, and many more love songs to end colonization that turned the night into a sing-along with big rounds of applause.
鈥淔or those three minutes, you are a star, and you feel like a star. And the people watching realize that they are watching a star. This performance is guided by those three minutes, and in those minutes we offer the singer a chance to reframe their relationship to colonization and the act of decolonizing in Canada.鈥�
听It鈥檚 infectious, and transformational because the performances prioritize love and joy, the duo says.
听鈥淔olks are singing songs that they love, and that are meaningful to them, and because of that, possibility is amplified and maybe that possibility can mean a different kind of future.鈥澨�
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