Today, OMBIIGIZI, the Anishinaabe-Canadian band led by Daniel Monkman (aka Zoon) and Adam Sturgeon (aka Status/Non-Status), are sharing the video for the titular track, “Shame,” of their recently released sophomore album, SHAME.
Monkman and Sturgeon, who first met in 2018, bonded over their shared Indigenous heritage, and how music has helped them pay homage to their ancestors and keep their culture alive. On their latest album, OMBIIGIZI, dives in head first. "Shame is a thing we all share," the band says of the album's title and core theme. "While the last album [2022’s debut Sewn Back Together] focused a lot on the positive force of healing despite odds, SHAME let’s things slide - it shares the things we don’t always say, it calls to others to heal and reminds them it’s OK - to feel, to be angry or sad, and that the world we experience can set the drag on high. But always it calls you in and forward."
The “Shame” video puts these feelings to the test, opening with complete silence and a black screen for nearly the first ten seconds, creating a tense moment of stillness. Then, viewers are drawn into clips of flowing water and a hypnotic chant singing, “we have to stay true when we try to explain shame.” What unfolds is five minutes of what feels like a complete short film. The story follows an astronaut figure who appears to be unfamiliar with the world around him, lost and displaced, until he comes across a masked figure who comes from the sea and seems to connect with him.
On the idea behind the video Sturgeon explains, “Shame is a mask we all wear. It is something that can feel Alien, but often reveals itself in the simplicity of our day to day life. I don't believe there is any one face to shame. Much like our Indigenous identity. The masks used to create the vision of shame therefore are otherworldly but exploring familiar and mundane themes.”
The mask featured in “Shame” was created by Billy Douthwright, “a late two-spirit Onkwehón:we artist and founding member [of the Sweet Labor Art Collective].” The collective, which centers its practice around multidisciplinary research and performance art, collaborated with OMBIGIIZI for the SHAME LP, allowing members of Sweet Labor Art to honor and continue to work with their ancestor, Billy through the project. On the experience of including Billy's art in the video, the collective shared, “We put his vision into play, letting the mask continue to do the work of touching into shame and allowing it to emerge into something new.”
“To know where you come from is to know where you are going,” concludes Sturgeon. In “Shame,” OMBIGIIZI pays a moving tribute to what has come before them and celebrates how it has shaped who they are today. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment