Transformance

Rose B. Simpson
"Transformance"
2021
Video
Courtesy the artist.

Film Credits:
Rose B. Simpson: Transformance

Directed by Ben-Alex Dupris

Produced with generous support from VIA Art Fund

In conjunction with the 2021 Art + Environment Season presented by theNevada Museum of Art.

In collaboration with Nuwu Art + Activism Studios

Performers:
Kadie Anderson
Fawn Douglas
Sol Martinez
Pasitiva Melendez
Cedar Rain
Rose B. Simpson
Gianna Yazzie

Special Thanks:
Las Vegas Paiute Tribal Community and the ancestral Nuwuvi lands
City of Las Vegas
Councilwoman Olivia Diaz
Historic Huntridge Circle Park
IndigenousAF Inc.
Jessica Silverman
Juan Cuevas and Xochil Xitlalli
Nevada Museum of Art
Nuwu Art + Activism Studios
VIA Art Fund

Simpson: “I've been transformed by this and I think the transformance is working its way through me slowly and showing me new layers of its existence. The transition is going through my cells and becoming who I am […] I feel like what I'm trying to remember is my strength and our community and what matters. And I'm trying to remember how to listen. I'm trying to remember to slow down. I’m trying to remember to honor myself and take the moment to do what's needed to move through the world with self-respect and remembering that I'm not a victim. And I can make change for myself and through that hopefully the ones around me.“

Simpson’s collaborator Fawn Douglas: “An unknown, how will I see myself? As we breathe a collective breath and move in pace with each other, time starts to slow. My heart was racing then calm soothes me as I look towards her, child in arms, strength holding peace. I see myself, holding my child self. She is my mirror and for that moment my heart beats at the same pace as hers. Trauma is not here at this moment of time, it is being healed. Medicine that only Indigenous women possess. A sisterhood, a knowing. It’s OK little Fawn, let go. Behind me are my relatives, an army of us. We move as one through the lands, cool grass under my feet in a vortex of rushing traffic surrounding us like being in the epicenter of a whirlwind. Chaos around me but peace within.”