Artist
Terrance Houle

© Terrance Houle, Friend or Foe #7 (Toronto), 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art, 2014. Photo Henry Chan.

Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe) / Canada
www.terrancehoule.com

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and raised on the Great Plains of North America, Terrance Houle is an internationally recognized interdisciplinary media artist and a proud member of the Kainai Nation (Blood Tribe).

Involved with Aboriginal communities all his life, he has traveled to reservations throughout North America participating in Powwow dancing and native ceremonies. Houle makes use of performance, photography, video & film, music and painting in his work. Likewise, Houle’s practice includes various tools of mass dissemination such as billboards and vinyl bus signage. 

Houle graduated from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 2003 with a BFA Major in Fibre. His groundbreaking art quickly garnered him significant accolades and opportunities. In 2003, Houle received an invitation to participate in the Thematic Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. This residency’s focus was on 34 international Indigenous people, exploring issues of colonization and communion. In 2004, his work in short video & film presented was awarded Winner of Best Experimental Film at the Toronto ImagineNATIVE Film Festival. In 2006, Houle received the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award, presented at the mayor’s luncheon for the arts. Houle’s work has been exhibited across Canada, the United States, Australia, the UK and Europe.

Terrance Houle’s first major solo exhibition, GIVN’R, opened at PLUG-IN Institute for Contemporary Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba. GIVN’R is a small retro-exhibition of Terrance’s works in film, video, performance, installation, mixed media, and photography between the years of 2003 to 2009. ​Houle lives and maintains his art practice in Calgary.

Performance
Ghost Days by Terrance Houle with Simla Civelek

Created and Performed by Terrance Houle
In collaboration with Simla Civelek

Presented at SummerWorks in partnership with FADO Performance Art Centre

Evoking our colonial and non-colonial histories that exist in the light of night as in the darkness of the day, GHOST DAYS awakens a collaboration with artists, audience, and spirit. Internationally celebrated performance artist Terrance Houle will work in residence overnight at the Theatre Centre throughout the festival, culminating in a final performance that combines video, performance, photography, and music to conjure spirits and ghosts as audience and collaborators.

Terrance Houle is in residence at SummerWorks as part of the SummerWorks Lab–a place for exploration, experimentation, and process, allowing us to support work in early stages and create connections between audiences and artists.

SummerWorks is Canada’s largest curated performance festival of theatre, dance, music, live art and interdisciplinary forms. This year’s 11-day Festival features 52 unique projects, as well our SLIP series of artist workshops, a collection of new performance experiments in the SummerWorks Lab, and nightly parties. Festival runs from August 3–13, 2017.


© Terrance Houle, Friend or Foe #7 (Toronto), 7a11d International Festival of Performance Art, 2014. Photo Henry Chan.

Performance Yellow

This fragrance opens us to the question, has the show started? It's winter, the theatre is colder than the street and the room is filled with people and all their winter smells: wet faux leather, down, too much shampoo, and beer breath. The atmosphere is a trickster. Am I late, am I early?

Top Notes

yellow mandarin, mimosa

Middle Notes

honey, chamomile, salt

Base Notes

narcissus, guaiac wood, piss, beer