Aǧúyabskuyela (cassiterite for tin), Kite, 2020. Silicon, plaster, Styrofoam, laser jet print.
This cake mourns the land destroyed and the beings human and nonhuman which were harmed by the mining of cassiterite. This performance asks “How do I learn to mourn? How do our relatives support our mourning?”
About
Kite aka Suzanne Kite is an Oglála Lakȟóta performance artist, visual artist, and composer raised in Southern California, with a BFA from CalArts in music composition, an MFA from Bard College’s Milton Avery Graduate School, and is a PhD candidate at Concordia University for the forthcoming dissertation, sound and video work, and interactive installation Hél čhaŋkú kiŋ ȟpáye (There lies the road). Kite’s scholarship and practice explores contemporary Lakota ontology through research-creation, computational media, and performance. Kite often works in collaboration, especially with family and community members. Her art practice includes developing Machine Learning and compositional systems for body interface movement performances, interactive and static sculpture, immersive video and sound installations, poetry and experimental lectures, experimental video, as well as co-running the experimental electronic imprint, Unheard Records. Her work has been featured in various publications, including the American Indian Culture and Research Journal, the Journal of Design and Science (MIT Press), with the award winning article, “Making Kin with Machines”, and the sculpture Ínyan Iyé (Telling Rock) (2019) was featured on the cover of Canadian Art.
Aǧúyabskuyela
Suzanne Kite | Live Arts Bard Commission | Live Premiere
Aǧúyabskuyela is an ongoing project that commemorates human, environmental, and cultural loss through the communal creation of a Lakota mourning cake, considering protocols for mourning to process the death of human and nonhuman beings. In this iteration Kite will create four cakes over four performances, each decorated in real time while in conversation with a guest. Each cake will mourn an extinct plant or animal kin from the area. Following what has been described as “public discourse around the kitchen table,” the cake is served to the audience. Guests in discussion include artist Alisha B. Wormsley, Tuscarora artist and scholar Jolene Rickard, Kite’s cousin and traditional brother Corey Stover, and scholar Lou Cornum.
Kite is in conversation with chef Sean Sherman to collaborate on the creation of the recipe for the cakes. The performances will occur at Bard during the Biennial Festival, May 4-7, 2023, which will be the first time Aǧúyabskuyela will be performed and practiced live.
The project is a practice of Lakota mourning traditions, which include the baking and sharing of a cake, and is intended to pay homage to Indigenous ancestors, traditions, and lifeways.