Braiding the Land (2024)

Meagan Musseau (Mi’kmaq, born 1990) performing Becomes Body of Water, June 2022. Image courtesy the artist. Photograph by Egide Foxworth.

Braiding the Land is an installation combining photography, sculpture, and text to recreate a narrative from a land-based performance. The original performance, titled Becomes Body of Water, took place on Wabanaki Territory at the Gilsland Farm Audubon Center in June of 2022. For the performance, Musseau patiently braided long strands of grey fabric and neon green tulle that were tied to rocks and buried in the ground. She activated the strands within the landscape––braiding the past and present while moving towards a future, interweaving movement and endurance within the environment to generate an ephemeral expression. For Braiding the Land, Musseau transforms this performance into a gallery installation by working with multiple art forms and creative gestures, all of which are grounded by the act of braiding.

The artist sends a special wela’lioq / thank you to Mihku Paul, Marissa Joly, Jaime DeSimone, Christian Adame, Gabby Chase, and Egide Foxworth for their contributions in the creation of Becomes Body of Water in 2022.

This is the debut presentation of Braiding the Land and represents one of several rotating contemporary interventions within Passages in American Art.

 Credits: performance documentation by Egide Foxworth