As dusk descends on a summer evening, Brooklyn-based experimental violinist and composer Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) will bring alive her 30-minute cinematic score for the exhibition From My Home to Yours to a special outdoor projection of the film, a collaboration with Montreal-based filmmaker Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French).

With a palette of foot pedals, clouds of rosin, and multi-instrumental mastery, Ortman’s amplified performance of the score (composed in 2020 as Dust Dives Alive) will radiate with the surroundings, particularly her improvisational, energetic layering of recordings of street chatter and protests, tree frogs and birds, and the creaking of doors and floors.

A selection of acclaimed short films by Ortman and Monnet will also be shown, including another with live accompaniment by Ortman. Feel free to bring blankets, wine, and picnic provisions for gathering with friends and family. In the event of rain, this performance will be held indoors.

7:30 p.m.—Lawn opens

8:15 p.m.—Introductions; Kapow (Ortman/Monnet, 2017)—with live performance

8:30–9 p.m.—From My Home to Yours live score and screening

9–9:30PM—Short films:

• I Lost My Shadow (Ortman, dir. Nanobah Becker, 2011)
• Mobilize (Monnet, 2015)
• Emptying the Tank (Monnet, 2018)

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This event for From My Home to Yours at MAM (May 7, 2022–January 1, 2023) is organized by Curator of Native American Art Laura J. Allen in collaboration with the artists.

Laura Ortman (White Mountain Apache) is a soloist musician, composer, and vibrant collaborator who creates across multiple platforms, including recorded albums, live performances, and filmic and artistic soundtracks. An inquisitive and exquisite violinist, Ortman is versed in Apache violin, piano, electric guitar, keyboards, and amplified violin, often sings through a megaphone, and produces capacious field recordings. She has performed at The Museum of Modern Art, the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, The New Museum, the Toronto Biennial, the Centre Pompidou, and countless other venues across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Ortman is the recipient of the Ortman is the recipient of the 2022 Forge Projects Fellowship; 2022 United States Artists Fellowship; 2022 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists; 2020 Jerome@Camargo Residency in Cassis, France; and numerous other grants and residencies. She was also a participating artist in the 2019 Whitney Museum Biennial. Ortman lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Laura Ortman Artist Statement: From the rosined-out beast of Ortman’s tough stained violin emerges deranged crumpled wings twirling in starlight and oil slickness and shininess; bearing heavy use of amplification and effects, she also incorporates over-rosining to add smoke, dust, wind and slow-motion grittiness in her scored/improvised compositions for amplified violin, Apache violin, whistles, tree branches, slides, guitar picks, bells, field recordings, and tuning fork.

Caroline Monnet (Anishinaabe/French) is a multidisciplinary artist from Outaouais, Quebec whose filmic and sculptural works explore Indigenous identity and grapple with colonialism’s impact. Monnet’s films integrate experimental and documentary techniques, creating concise poetic and politicized portraits of land and people. Her work has been featured in numerous international exhibitions and collections, including a recent solo exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and work in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, the 2019 Toronto Biennial, the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, and the National Gallery of Canada, as well the Sundance, Palm Springs, Göteborg, and Toronto film festivals. In 2016, she was selected for the Cannes Festival Cinefondation residency in Paris. In 2020, she won Canada’s prestigious Sobey Art Award. Her first feature film, Bootlegger, was released to acclaim in 2021.

^{Above: Courtesy of the artists
Below: Frank Schramm/Montclair Art Museum}