Wives was a feminist performance collective based in Montreal and Toronto, Canada from 2009-2017.
Emma-Kate Guimond, Julia Thomas, Leah Fay Goldstein, and Aisha Sasha John were the members of WIVES over the years.
Collaboratively, WIVES crafted large-scale productions and small performances. Their work encompassed dance, theatre, action, movement, sculpture, video, and drawing.
In Open Your Heart, Willie, and Love, WIVES used live drawing and performance to delve into self love, finding inspiration in moose mating habits and the philosophy of Willie Nelson (La Sala Rosa, Montreal, 2008).
WIVES’ sea punk fantasy Sea Foam Blue transported viewers into the depths of a mermaid’s inner world while exploring her sexuality through internet dating (Phenomena Festival, Montreal, 2013; SummerWorks Festival, Toronto, 2014).
In Feeled, WIVES created an olympiad of sporting events where nobody wins and winning doesn’t matter, prioritising emotion over competition. Using enormous and unwieldy equipment, players engage in events like “Gravitas” and “Anxiety Ball”, where two players relentlessly kick a hundred balls at one player (2015, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto; 2016, OFFTA Festival, Montreal.)
Press: Le devoir
In Action Movie, WIVES took on the challenge of making a “live, feminist action movie”. Applying the genre’s codes reveals the performers’ individual relationships to power, each taking centre stage in her personal version of the “movie”. Throughout the show, they generate a chain of absurd prototype “New Weapon Ideas” conceived to obliterate specific kinds of enemies. Appropriately, Action Movie was WIVES largest production (2017, La Chapelle)
Press: Diffractions
WIVES were proud to curate events that brought together artists from different disciplines and communities, like Engagement Party at Studio 303 (Montreal, 2016 ) and a performance evening for the National Women’s Studies Conference (Monument National, Montreal, 2016.)
