Poet Arielle Twist writes, in one critical description, “within the gaps — the moments when queerness evades translation.” CHOPPED, her commissioned sound installation at MASS MoCA, extends that practice into an audio takeover of Building 5, opening Monday, August 3, and running through August 9.
About the Show
CHOPPED occupies Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition POWER FULL BECAUSE WE’RE DIFFERENT as a layered sound work produced alongside Patrick ‘Reachout’ Coll. Twist, who is Nehiyaw (Cree), Two-Spirit, and trans femme, created the piece in direct response to escalating discrimination and violence targeting trans and gender nonconforming individuals in America. She is originally from George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan and now based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The work moves through themes of erasure, disembodiment, hauntings, and “the power of absence and ancestral presence.” Twist will not be physically present for the installation; in lieu of her presence, she contributes, in the work’s own framing, “the power of her voice, her spirit, and a braided lock of her hair.” Her voice appears throughout alongside select trans collaborators, and that deliberate absence is not incidental to CHOPPED: it is what the piece argues. The installation is commissioned by MASS MoCA and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Endeavor Foundation.
Twist is a Nehiyaw (Cree), Two-Spirit trans woman whose interdisciplinary practice spans textiles, painting, performance, literature, and language work aimed at reclaiming and harnessing “ancestral magic and memories.” Her 2019 debut poetry collection, Disintegrate/Dissociate (Arsenal Pulp Press), won the Indigenous Voices Award for Published Poetry and was a finalist for the Publishing Triangle Awards for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. She also received a Pushcart Prize nomination, a National Magazine Award shortlist, and the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers from the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Her work appears in Canadian Art, The Fiddlehead, PRISM International, and CBC Arts.
Venue & Logistics
MASS MoCA, a cultural anchor of the northern Berkshires, is in North Adams, Massachusetts — a drive that puts it within reach of the capital region. Building 5 is where CHOPPED lives, embedded inside Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition, which means the installation arrives already surrounded by a larger visual conversation. Plan enough time to move through both; neither is a quick experience.
Because this runs as a week-long installation rather than a single-night show, you have real flexibility: visit any day from August 3 through August 9.
Tickets
CHOPPED is free with museum admission. Buy tickets