Friday, April 4 through Saturday, April 5, 2025
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre
10124 96 Street NW
Edmonton, Alberta T5H 2G5
Co-Produced by New Music Edmonton and Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre
All events are free.
It’s always exciting when we can welcome a really cool artist to town for multiple events, and it’s doubly exciting that Olivia Shortt will be appearing for the first time in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ Amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton). Self-described as a noisemaker, video artist, curator, and troublemaker, Shortt’s work is inspired by their love of camp, drag, and gender expression and its relation to Indigeneity.
New Music Edmonton is honoured to be presenting these events in collaboration with the Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre, whose brilliant advocacy for, and presentation of, work by Indigenous artists is an invaluable part of our region’s artistic milieu.
Friday, April 4, 7:30 pm: Olivia Shortt, with guests Matthew Cardinal, and Mustafa Rafiq
What an amazing coming together of artists this will be! Two of our community’s most brilliant and in-demand creatives come together with Olivia Shortt in a unique, one-of-a-kind night of collaborative music making. Combining guitars, synthesizers, saxophone, electronics and much more. Calling this an improv show doesn’t come close to describing the magic of this experience.
Saturday, April 5, 2 pm: Olivia Shortt Artist Talk
Join us at Ociciwan this afternoon for an artist talk by Olivia Shortt, a great chance to get to know a great artist a little bit more!
Saturday, April 5, 7:30 pm: Olivia Shortt Performs Makwa
For the first time ever, this phenomenal solo performance work by Olivia Shortt, widely performed in other places, will be enjoyed live in our city. A sensory-dense, stream-of-conscious storytelling piece that switches back and forth between saxophone, voice, and video feed, Makwa explores the unexpected rage of living inside of yourself and being alone with your thoughts.
The Artists
(They/them // Anishinaabe, Nipissing First Nation // ireland) Olivia Shortt is a weirdo, noisemaker, video artist, sound designer, 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”. Their video artwork has been presented by organizations such as Din of Shadows (Toronto), University of Toronto, as well as the Matriarchs Uprising Festival (Vancouver). 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 for Stephen King’s In the Tall Grass and Season 3 of Chucky. Recently, Shortt was Artist-in-Residence at Carleton University’s Music Department, and the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies. Shortt is a graduate of Dartmouth College (USA).
Photo Credit: Robert Szkolnicki
www.oliviashortt.com
Matthew Cardinal (he/him) is an amiskwaciy (Edmonton, AB)-based musician, sound artist, and photographer known for his work with Polaris Short List nominee group nêhiyawak. Cardinal’s solo full-length album Asterisms was released in October 2020 on Arts & Crafts. Cardinal’s music utilizes modular synthesizers, vintage analog equipment, electric pianos, and samplers to create cinematic and dreamlike soundscapes.
Photo Credit: Chelsee Ivan
matthewcardinal.bandcamp.com
Mustafa Rafiq is a person and self-taught guitarist and saxophonist. Using these instruments with voice, field recordings and sound collage percussion he researches relationships among blackness, nature, divinity, sound and time.
Photo Credit: Medland Marchen
pseudolaboratories.bandcamp.com/album/if-i-were-a-dance
Accessibility
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Centre is barrier-free and is equipped with a lift to reach upper floors and lower floor gallery. Single stall and wide stall washrooms available on every floor. Children are welcome! Change tables available in select washrooms.
ETS stops at 96 Street and Jasper Avenue 1 minute walking distance (Routes 2, 5, 111, 131), 95 Street and Jasper Avenue 5 minutes walking distance (Routes 1), 100 Street and Jasper Avenue 10 minutes walking distance (Central Station, routes 8, 130X, 150X, 201).
LRT Valley Line is a 1 minute walking distance (Quarters Station)
Street parking: 96 Street, Rate: Free parking, Hours of Operation: 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday to Saturday; 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Sundays
Street parking: 101A Avenue, Rate: $2.00 / HR Monday to Friday; $1.00 / HR Saturday and Sunday, Hours of Operation: 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM Monday to Saturday; 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Sundays.
Paid impark lots available down 101A Ave.
