Passages Trilogy draws from travel writing by travelers from the East to the West during the 18th and 19th centuries. Developed through extensive research, the project consists of Wonders of the Sea (based on travelogue by Mirza I'tessam al-Din Tajpouri), Inhabiting the North (based on memoirs of Sayyada Salma bint Said, aka Emily Ruete), and Like Flesh and Blood (based on memoirs of Joseph Emin)

Like Flesh and Blood is a site-responsive collaborative and participatory performance that juxtaposes selections from the memoirs of Joseph Emin, an Armenian Liberationist who went to England in 1750s, with an oral history of the Mississauga Nation and the contemporaneous events leading to the occupation and settlement of Toronto. It was performed in Toronto in collaboration with Naomi Binder Wall and John Croutch as part of the 2015 Mayworks Festival as a walking tour/theatre-on-the-move at Queen’s Park in Toronto.

The performance included some ephemera, including a set of cards that was distributed to the participants through the process. The performance was webcasted and recorded live. The video was edited with additional material as a stand-alone piece that explores issues of indigeneity, migration, colonization, settlement, and North-South/East- West dichotomies.

This work can be re-staged as a live, site-responsive performance. A full video of the 2015 performance is available for single- or multi-channel exhibition or for screening.

website