Melanie Jones

Canadians Are Mean (2015)

Commissioned by BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange's 2014/15 Artist In Residence program

CANADIANS ARE MEAN is a performance installation, produced by Melanie Jones and created collaboratively with an ensemble of Alberta (Calgary, Peace River), Manitoba, Toronto, Vancouver, French-Canadian and First Nations (Métis, Sioux/Cree, Ojibway) performers.

Set in a dystopian near-future along the largely undefended Canada-U.S. border, the work casts the audience as American refugees seeking asylum in the Great White North. Audience are processed, questioned and indoctrinated as they travel through an absurd bureaucratic obstacle course and simmering Canadian rage comes to a boil.

Written by Melanie Jones in collaboration with the performers: Tanya Marquardt, Doug Chapman, Karen Grenke, Jessica Ranville, Tanis Parenteau.

This work was created, in part, through the Artist In Residence Program at BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Jerome Robbins Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. This work is generously supported with funds from The Alberta Foundation for the Arts.

Back to Projects

CANADIANS ARE MEAN - Canuck Burlesque from Melanie Jones on Vimeo.

This work was created, in part, through the Artist In Residence Program at BAX|Brooklyn Arts Exchange with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Jerome Robbins Foundation and the Jerome Foundation. This work is generously supported with funds from The Alberta Foundation for the Arts.