Little Big Man Remix

Little Big Man Remix by the Contrary Collective takes a disciplinary boundary breaking and oppositional stance on pop cultural renderings of Indigenous culture, in particular the film Little Big Man.

The Contrary Collective members are Terrance Houle, Ulysses Castellanos and Cathy Gordon who have created a new performance art/theatre/music/visual art hybrid. The term Contrary is apropos to the individual personalities of the collective and their position within the arts community. A Contrary was a member of a Native North American tribal group who adopted behavior that was deliberately the opposite of other tribal members. The Contraries are related, in part, to the clown organizations of the Plains Indians, as well as to Plains military societies that contained reverse warriors.

The collective will remake Little Big Man into a video art piece with live performance in roughly five "acts". Little Big Man Remix examines the idea of the "traitor", which is the premise of the film. How and when do we betray our brothers, ourselves, our history? What are the boundaries and when are they crossed? Can treachery ever be justified? Can it really be forgiven?

This installation is part of the House of Wayward Spirits series of exhibitions curated by Wanda Nanibush and commissioned by ANDPVA. We thank the Ontario Arts Council for funding the series.

In partnership with