Jonas and Copernicus

Ange Loft is an interdisciplinary performing artist and initiator working in arts based research, wearable sculpture, theatrical co-creation and Haudenosaunee history. Co-created with collaborator Jonas Arahkwen:te Gilbert, Jonas and Copernicus examines a contemporary Kanienkehaka Gay experience in the city and the future life of Gibert and renaissance polymath Capernicus, together as astronomer and hair stylist to the stars. 

Artist statement: Ange Loft

A daydream of a romance written in the heavens. Across time and space, Jonas Arahkwente Gibert woos renaissance polymath Copernicus, with musings on Montreal architecture, Skyworld, the best views in the city, and their future life together as astronomer and hair stylist to the stars.  

Co-created and cheeky, the narrative examines a contemporary Kanienkehaka Gay experience in the city, straddling multiple worlds and planning for the good life.

Story transcript

There’s a – there’s a Copernicus statue. There, I’m loving this angle. Very handsome, very nicely posed. Drapery, to drapes. Draped fabrics. Mmm, we love fabric. That is what our initial attraction was. Because we both had so distinct style. Golden Girls.

I’ve always thought to myself at least that the Olympic Stadium looks like a snail. It looks like a snail to me. See, they carry their home with them. Oh wow, she’s moving. She’s art in motion.[Laughing] Ooh, oh wow.

You know there’s a time and a place for any look really. Is it for me? No. Is it for him? I think it could be styled different. Nice cheekbones though. Great cheekbones.

I would tell him to just grow his bangs out. Otherwise I mean he has a kind of OK hair. It has the sort of texture that I like. You know, it’s like wavy, curly and like a nice colour brown. Just grow out those bangs, it's awful. But like definitely keep the man bun. I’m into that. I love long hair on guys.

I would definitely start with the Village. Maybe I’d bring him to the Oratory. That’s always impressive you know, if you’re really into Catholicism.

Well Sky World is what – you know, I was thinking about this the other day. It’s funny you should bring it up. Sky World is where Sky Woman lived, Sky Lady. Sky Woman yeah, she was knocked up, and she was looking to eat a certain kind of root. And then she dug her way out of Sky World and fell to our world, and landed on a turtle.

Sky World could be I guess maybe a sort of like analogue to maybe like Christian Heaven? Or Nirvana you know? Like leaving this plane. Because people obviously live there. Space is just space. Space is the ether in between worlds. Sky World is a place itself.

Good views surprisingly also here in Rosemont because we’re kind of like close to the top of the hill. So you could see the fireworks from two blocks away. St. Henri not great for views unless you like Highways because we’re surrounded by two if not three. Good views? Rooftops on the Plateau probably the most ideal. I would be able to bring him up to the top of the mountain. The top of Mont Royal and we could watch the fireworks!

The purple ones are called vetch, V-E-T-C-H. They’re like in the legume family. They kind of make beans. In some countries when they let their field go fallow they'll plant those as cover crop because they reintroduce nitrogen to the soil. Fuzzy vetch, hairy vetch, or like smooth 

Ooh who’s that? Has anybody ever told you about your gravitational pull? And you’d be like no. And I’m like well because baby, you’re a star. Did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?

No, maybe something more like, I know there’s a lot of talk about heavenly bodies, but baby you’ve got one. Or like I don’t know.

[Laughing] So we’re together, and we’re successful. And we can afford to have two residences, a nice loft. Not in Old Montreal because I think that's a little too dingy. East of Old Montreal, Mercier, like Hochelaga. Yeah, our like full-time residence would be up in the Laurentians. So that there’s very little light pollution so that he can do his work.

He holds it up to the sky and it helps him figure out where the planets are, and their relativity to the Earth and to him. It’s his own device. He made it himself.

He would probably work there, and I would work in the city during the week. Go up north for the weekends.

Copernicus? [Laughs] Copernicus you out of this world. Shoot for the moon and if you miss at least you’ll land amongst the stars you know? That’s what I was saying when he was talking about writing his manuscript. I’m like shoot for the moon. And I think at that point he’ll probably be like enough with the star metaphors.

[Laughs] He would spend a lot of time at night looking at stars, while I would have to be sleeping because you know working in cinema we wake up really early. Like I’ve got to be up at 3:00 to catch my train for 4:00 so I can be on set for 5:00.

Celine Dion once said “love can move mountains.” So I think maybe if we wanted it to work we could make it work.

Credits 

Directed, Styled and Edited by Ange Loft  
Narrative collaboratively created by Ange Loft and Jonas Gilbert.  
Audio mix and Colour correction by Alaska B 

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