ASL Interpretation
We close the 11th Annual Festival nourished by the songs, dances, and poems that have moved through us. In a world that often asks us to harden or shrink, we choose strength, softness, and sustenance. Together, we honour the elements that hold us — land, water, fire, air — and the many hands that shaped this gathering.
Featuring
Sam Chimes, Siobhan Barker, Ashley Chodat
MC
TBC
1PM - 1:15M: OPENING
1:15PM -1:45PM: Donna Redlick - Relationscapes
"Relationscapes" is an outdoor somatic dance installation that foregrounds kinesthetic empathy. Dancers move from the sensorial experience while attuning to one another in the park. Movement sculptures emerge, morph, and evolve within nature's landscapes in the park to create the 'collective body'. The work intersects somewhere between dance, sculpture, moving installation, and community eco-somatics. What happens when we slow down, engage our senses, and work with the intention of deep listening to one another, with nature as our guide?
1:45PM - 2PM: Eva Fernandez Ojeda - 508 CRS score: not enough
There is a pressure that I feel in my chest. It is not a strange feeling, I’ve felt it before; yet, I cannot recall when it first appeared. Maybe I was born with it, carried through my ancestors. Maybe it’s carried through my brown skin, through my gender or through my queerness. As I navigate this world, I use my body as the tool of expression to understand and heal the pressure in my chest. With the use of spoken word, body language and text, I make art that challenges the socio-political systems that we live under. I focus on my experience as a Mexican brown queer woman that migrated to “Canada” at the age of 20 and through it, I raise questions about race and feminism.
2:05PM - 2:25PM: Ashley Chodat - Be(a)Tree
Ashley is a theatre artist and educator. She currently resides on the traditional, unceded territories of the Salish Peoples, specifically the Katzie, Kwantlen, and Semiahmoo First Nations. Ashley is drawn to stories that explore science fiction, speculative futures and coming of age. Playwright highlights include: Camp Goneaway (Best of the Fest, Patron's Pick, BC Touring Award- Vancouver Fringe 2024) June Bug (UpintheAir rEvolver Festival, Theatre on the Edge) and Mother Pin (Fabulist Theatre/Or Festival) She is the co-artistic director of Ragamuffin Productions. Ashley works as a teaching artist with Bard on the Beach and The Arts Club Theatre Company. She loves playing outside with her friends.
2:30PM - 2:55PM: Sam Chimes - THE RESONANCE ENSEMBLE: "BOXES OF PERCEPTION & IDENTITY"
Created by Sam Chimes, The Resonance Ensemble transforms personal limitations into collective liberation. Sam's box was cultural silence until the looper amplified his voice. Piper's perfectionism cage became rhythmic freedom through contact mic tap. Naomi's stillness transformed into powerful movement expression. Macca's stereotypical expectations evolved into authentic artistic vision.
At Vines Festival, each performer begins in colored boxes representing their journey. Sam's looper influences sequential emergence - inspiring Piper to step out and tap, Piper's rhythms move Naomi, Naomi's dance encourages Macca to paint freely. The audience participates, encouraging liberation while children crawl through connected boxes, proving barriers become bridges for collective transcendence.
3:00PM - 3:15PM: Palak Dhiman - Basant Rtu: Colours of Spring
Choreographed by Smt. Usha Sharma (She/Her), and Palak Dhiman (She/Her)
Palak Dhiman (she/her) is an independent dance artist, choreographer, and educator trained in Kathak since 1993. She practices her art and its related forms in Vancouver, B.C., on the unceded, ancestral and traditional territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations. She has participated in numerous stage productions, with Manohar Performing Arts in Winnipeg (2006-2019) and Upasana in Ottawa (2016-2019), and toured
3:20- 3:45 PM : Clown Cabaret
3:50 PM - 3:45 PM: Corus - Native American Flute Journey with Corus
Corus is an Indigenous artist from Haisla & Kitasoo Xai'xais Nation in the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia.Drawing inspiration from nature, Corus creates new age, organic, neo soul and meditation music that resonates with the rhythms of the earth. Their music is a reflection of the profound connection they feel to their ancestral lands, blending soulful melodies with the natural harmonies of the universe.
4:15 PM - 4:35 PM: m'itlaa | meesh
M'itlaa "Meesh" is a poet who in 2017's CFSW was honored as a "Rising Voice" Poet of Honor. and then in 2018's CFSW, earned a spot as a team-representative on the Vancouver Poetry Slam team, who then competed their way to the national stage, placing 3rd in the country. Their most recent work is featured in the short film "Johnny Crow" directed by Xstine Cook and illustrated by Jesse Gouchey.
4:40 PM - 4:50PM: Immacula
4:55 PM - 5:20PM : Izzy Cenedese
Izzy is a queer musician playing music that has been described as “freaky folky”. They focus heavy on lyrics and storytelling. Izzy is a previous recipient of Said The Whales Young Artist Grant and will be releasing an album in the next year (has been said for the past few years so grain of salt). Izzy is happiest performing live and finds it to be the most special way of sharing art and communicating with an audience. They can be found playing around the city, busking, or on tik tok.
5:25PM - 5:45 PM: Siobhan Barker
The body, commodification, the devaluing of self to conform to capitalist colonial esthetics. An earlier draft was performed last year. This story goes deeper into creating a mythical origin story of Thunderthigh’s universe colliding with this world. Literally when planets collide. Vines attendees “get it” they come and talk details of my story and how it intersects with their lives. They are engaged and captivated by the source material and challenge me in good ways to stretch what is possible as a modern day Griot giving social justice commentary on what ails the body, the land, and our collective spirit.
5:45PM - 6:20PM: DJ Squeezy
The Gong Library Ensemble
This is a new project of a collective of musicians and artists united by a shared passion for sonic exploration, improvisation, and play. Drawing on an eclectic array of backgrounds, ranging from experimental music and classical training to avant-garde minimalism, sound art, and trance-inducing rhythms, this ensemble forges new, uncharted sonic territory.Anchored by resonant metals, gongs, and an ever-evolving arsenal of instruments such as guitar, violin, cello, and percussion, the group creates immersive experiences that move listeners from high-intensity crescendos to sweet, melodic hues. Their performances invite audiences to sink deeply into shifting themes, transforming energy in much the same way metal is forged under high heat—consistently renewing both the players and the listeners in an alchemical cycle of sound.
SACHA OUELLET & GEM HALL - Invisible Dream Caravan ii
DIANA MORE & LIZ OAKLEY - Cloud Parade
Welcome to the cloud parade! In this ambulatory procession and performance, paper-mache clouds will float through the park, eventually gathering together into a puppeteered storm performance, with rain, thunder, and lightning bolts bearing words that show what is possible when community comes together and collective energy is built.The puppet elements for this performance will be built in collaboration with the community during our public artmaking workshop in partnership with Patchwork Repair Hub on July 26-27. All are welcome - check out www.pathworkrepairhub.com for more information.
BILL J BARNES - Bonded Links – Chain Mail Making as a Queer & Collective Practice
“Bonded Links” is a hands-on workshop that explores chain mail as a metaphor for queer kinship, resistance, and the interconnectedness of community. Through the act of crafting wearable or functional pieces, participants will engage in socialized education—learning through shared knowledge, mutual support, and lived experiences rather than hierarchical instruction.
Participants will learn basic chain mail-making techniques while reflecting on the ways queer people build chosen families, subvert societal norms, and reclaim personal adornment as an act of visibility and empowerment. The session encourages skill-sharing, collaborative learning, and creative self-expression.
SEREN CLARK - The Body says LAND BACK
Created as a stand in body for protests.
Amy Bao - Jacob’s Ladder
This interactive kinetic artwork explores the mechanical properties of the Jacob’s Ladder — a toy made from flat wood blocks attached with ribbons. As the top block is flipped, all the blocks below follow, making satisfying clacking noises as they cascade down.
Here, four different paintings and a sculpture are combined into one artwork. Hanging columns of Jacob’s Ladders create a “kinetic canvas” with two resting orientations. In each orientation, two paintings are hidden while two others are shown.
Visitors are encouraged to use the handles at the top of the frame to flip the Jacob’s Ladders and reveal the different paintings
TOLU AYOKA
MARCEL J VILACA
RAMNEET KAUR - Slow Gathering
Ramneet Kaur’s installation weaves together drawing, textile, and site-responsive processes to explore the interconnections between human and more-than-human worlds. Using frottage - a tactile technique of rubbing graphite and charcoal against textured surfaces—she gathers imprints from trees, stones, and uprooted forest debris, allowing the land to leave its own marks. These large-scale textiles become repositories of presence and memory, accumulating traces shaped by the environment’s textures, rhythms, and time. Textile, in Kaur’s practice, also holds cultural, personal, and familial connotations. As a medium closely linked to care, repair, and home, it becomes a site for slow, reciprocal engagement. Through layering, stitching, sewing, and gestural mark-making, she mimics geological and biological processes such as erosion, accumulation, sedimentation, and decay. Visitors are invited to move through the suspended pieces, stepping into a porous space where human and nonhuman traces converge. The work resists extractive gestures and instead proposes kinship with the land- honoring its co-creation and centering attentiveness, care, and reverence.
MONICA CHEEMA - No Past To Long For
Myth and memory intertwine as we trace what remains of Paldi, a logging community founded by Punjabi immigrants in the old-growth forests of Vancouver Island. Situated on unceded Cowichan territory near Duncan, B.C., the town has been memorialized and celebrated as a kind of multicultural utopia, concealing its long history of resource extraction. A closer look at the archives asks us to reconsider what is remembered and what is forgotten.
REGGIE K - Post It Portraits
Reggie will be drawing you! Please come up and ask and I'll be happy to draw. I use a Pentel ink brush to draw black linework images of individuals, with a signature round cheek - because everyone has cute cheeks :)
LUPO - Legacy
Hân Phạm (Phạm Thụy Mai Hân) - Country of Memories
Created by students of Graham Bruce Elementary School and Hân Phạm, with mentorship from Yunuen Perez Vertti, as a part of the AIRs Artist In School Program, Vancouver.
AUDREY SIEGL
RUSSNOOR SIHOTA - ਧਰਤੀ (Earth)
ਧਰਤਿ (Earth) is a series of four pieces comprising four elements of the Earth - ਹਵਾ (air), ਅੱਗ (fire), ਪਾਣੀ (water), and ਧਰਤਿ (earth). The pieces were constructed using predominately foraged and earth-based materials to explore a decolonized approach to our connection to the climate and nature. Materials included foraged rose petals, green matter, tea leaves, geru (ochre), henna, kohl, indigo, turmeric, and similar natural media. In choosing to work with organic, self-created inks and pigments, I wanted to convey a non-westernized approach to climate justice in contextualizing the Earth not as a commodity, but a symbolic representation of inherent creativity and artistry. I sought the Earth as inspiration, viewing the planet as a thriving soul, one whose interconnectedness can provide, shape, reform, and construct. I employed traditional print-making methods and painting techniques inspired by the Punjabi tradition of phulkari - a folk embroidery style that often conveys floral and organic motifs. In my exploration of these materials and using these canvases as a vessel for storytelling I aimed to understand nature as an evolving and changing spirit. As these are natural materials, I understood that fading and reshaping was an aspect of Earth's will, and to be a part of the Earth is to understand it on its own terms.
.jpg)
.jpeg)
%20(1)%20(1).jpeg)
.jpg)
