Leela Gilday and Tran Vu
In exploring our recent art practice and the themes that have resonated for us, we (Leela Gilday and Tran Vu) settled on HEALING as a common experience during this time. Faced with the collective trauma that the pandemic has perpetuated on the global population in general, and artists specifically, we discussed the ways that we have each dealt with this in our own lives and through our art practices.
It has become apparent that some of the most effective ways of dealing with grief, depression and anxiety that we both continue to face is to draw on our land and culture to strengthen, empower and reconnect us. The pieces we created for this project examine those themes in tandem with each other- and feature our unique cultural and geographical placements.
Leela’s soundscape and the creation of a contemporary song in her own traditional Indigenous language- Dene Ke- draw the listener into her northern world, to experience the sounds of the land and culture that bolster her identity and healing. Tran’s image of the conical hats in the shape of the number 39 pays homage to the lives of 39 Vietnamese migrants who journeyed to seek a new fruitful life ended in tragedy (their deaths in a refrigerated truck). The accompanying videos of traditional Vietnamese Lên đồng spiritual ceremonies grounds the piece in hope, healing and transcendence.
HEALING JOURNEYS:
A collaboration to honor our ancestors, culture and land.
Click above to hear the soundscape and song
“I wanted to take the listener on a sonic journey of what has really been significant for me as an artist this year; what has inspired and sustained me… Those are very specific sounds, but people will be able to relate to those very ceremonial and worldview ideas, because everybody’s healing journey is personal.”
“…this collective grief that’s happening, unprocessed trauma… and the best way I think to really activate that, and enter that, is through the lens of healing.”
“The song that I wrote is in the same tempo, inspired by this very popular drum dance song that I chose… I used my own language in the song that i created, and I just talk about the blessings that the Creator has given us, and the seasons passing, and how that relates to how we heal through that connection to the land and the earth and the Creator.”
Leela and Tran discuss their project
“The 39 represents the 39 bodies of migrant workers found in this refrigerated truck in the UK in 2019. […] there’s been so many stories of these migrant worker who have risked their lives to go on these really intense journeys in search of better opportunities.”
LEELA GILDAY
If you’re from the North, Leela Gilday’s music is home. If you’ve never been, it will take you there. Born and raised in the Northwest Territories, she writes about the people and the land that created her. The power in her voice conveys the depth of her feelings of love and life in a rugged environment and vibrant culture, as if it comes straight from that earth. Leela’s family is from Délįne on the shore of Great Bear Lake and her rich vocals dance across the rhythmic beats of traditional Dene drumming as smoothly as a bass line onstage the largest venues in the country. And she has played them all.
Leela has toured festivals and concert halls with her four-piece band through every province and territory in Canada. She has played in the United States, Greenland, Australia, New Zealand and several countries in Europe. Her live shows are where she connects with fans who have followed her on a 20-year career and where new fans are born. She reaches into their hearts and feels the energy of every person in front of her as she guides them on a journey through song and experience. She believes music has an inexplicable effect on people. It is a place where she can share light and dark and the most vulnerable moments, with a clarity and genuine purpose that reassures her listeners through every word. She is a storyteller, and through this, reflects the world onto itself.
Five years after her last album was released—five years of growth, healing and head-down work—Leela’s fifth album “North Star Calling” was released fall 2019. It is more raw, more intimate and more Leela than anything you’ve heard from her before.
NGOC-TRAN VU
Ngoc-Tran Vu (she/her) is a 1.5-generation Vietnamese-American multimedia artist and organizer whose socially engaged practice draws from her experience as a connector, educator, and lightworker. Tran threads her social practice through photography, painting, sculpture and audio so that her art can resonate and engage audience with intentionality. Her work evokes discourse of familial ties, memories and healing amongst themes of social justice and intersectionality.
In 2019, Tran was the National Arts Strategies’ Creative Communities Fellow and featured as one of the WBUR Artery 25, a series highlighting millennials of color making an impact in the Boston arts scene. Tran has collaborated with ArtPlace America, the Boston Children’s Museum, MASS MoCA Assets for Artists, Heritage Museums and Gardens. She teaches workshops on storytelling, digital marketing, financial literacy, housing strategies for artists, and has taught in the Future Imagemakers program at NYU's Tisch Department of Photography. Currently, she’s an adjunct faculty teaching an Asian American Studies course titled “Asian Women in the United States” at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Born in Sài Gòn, Việt Nam, Tran came to the United States with her family as political refugees and grew up in Boston's Dorchester and South Boston, both working-class neighborhoods of Massachusetts. She works across borders and is grounded in Boston's Dorchester community. https://tranvuarts.com/ | @TranVuArts
