Another Feather In Her Bonnet | Miss Chief Eagle Testickle & Jean Paul Gaultier

Another Feather In Her Bonnet-a surprise performance by Miss Chief Eagle Testickle and Jean Paul Gaultier, presented at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts-represents the symbolic union of two artists who have come together to challenge ideas of cultural appropriation.
On September 8, 2017, Miss Chief, Kent Monkman’s shape-shifting, time-travelling, gender-fluid alter ego, and French couturier Jean Paul Gaultier exchanged vows of mutual respect and compassion under a variation of Monkman’s Théâtre de Cristal (2006), an elegant tipi measuring six metres in diameter and made of 350 strings of sparkling glass beads.
For the faux ceremony, Miss Chief donned a white feather headdress created by Gaultier in 2002 for a wedding gown design, which was inspired by Plains Indigenous headdresses and presented in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition Love Is Love. Indigenous headdresses are imbued with spiritual significance. An earned honour, they come with protocols and responsibilities. At the Museum’s invitation, Monkman responded to the appearance of Gaultier’s faux headdress by creating Another Feather in Her Bonnet with his long-time collaborator Gisèle Gordon. With this performance, Monkman intends to re-contextualize and re-appropriate the faux headdress, playing on the figure of the sexualized and stereotyped Indigenous woman as perceived by the colonial gaze.
Cultural appropriation needs to be challenged in many ways. This artist project is one small way two artists from divergent cultural backgrounds came together in conversation to create an understanding, leading to this happy “union.”
Presented as part of the exhibition Love Is Love - Wedding Bliss for All à la Jean Paul Gaultier.
Film by CocoFilms Studio www.cocofilms.ca/
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[@paeridox]

My professor this semester in Perspectives of LGBTQ+ Studies (who is Canadian) introduced us to the work of Kent Monkman/Miss Chief as she was educating us on the history of Two-Spirit peoples both past and present (something I had never known/learned about prior to that lecture). As soon as she showed us Monkman’s artwork for the first time as a contemporary example, I was absolutely floored and became obsessed with learning more about him and more about Two-Spirit people in general. This was a beautiful and touching video, and I can not wait to see more. Thank you for your work and the impact it creates Miss Chief.

[@AleshaCorrine]

WOW WOW WOW! This was assigned to us to watch for group work in my class and every bit of this was so moving and beautiful! Really gave me the feels!

[@kurtschwarz9443]

Thank you for posting this video! It confronts cultural appropriation and the way colonial perspectives have dominated the cultural narrative. Bravo, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle for taking back the power and shaking the cultural narratives!!
I look forward to be shocked, moved and challenged by this work long into the future!

[@lindarosefisher9587]

Love it! Love it. Love it.

[@leighpowley8410]

Extraordinary depiction of Now.

[@anonymousanon3055]

Thanks for posting this vid!