Lucille Frost (they/them) is a queer, Metis, interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, community activist, daughter, sister, friend. 

Their creative practice is currently based in Amiskwaciy Waskahikan (Beaver Hills House) also known as Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Treaty 6 territory is a traditional meeting place for many communities including, Nehiyaw (Cree), Denesuliné (Dene), Nakota Sioux (Stoney), Anishinabae (Saulteaux), Iroquois, Ojibway, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), and Metis. This place and its people are integral to Lucille’s art and life. 

Lucille is a domestic violence survivor living with PTSD, anxiety and major depressive disorder. They also live with Scoliosis. A  curvature of the spine that causes mobility impairment and chronic pain. Lucille has been diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia. Often struggling in conventional classrooms as a child and youth  they love creating alternative education spaces and using unconventional pedagogies to reach minds where it is/how it are instead of expecting anyone to fit standardized forms. 

Altogether Lucille is a human being with all the complexity inherent to this condition. Many facets of their life and identity are not apparent from the outside, as it is for us all. Lucille doesn’t often get to share these vulnerable details with others and sometimes that feels like shame. Like hiding. They use art to process this human experience but chooses to share this art in order to expose a sense of shared humanity with all the people who need to see it/experience it. 

Artist Statement

This 90 minute long performance consists of a choreographed massage between two women. The performance explores intimacy, vulnerability, female pleasure, platonic female touch and gendered gaze. The room would be amended to have pink and blue lighting, combining in areas to create purple. The piece includes selected female electronic(EDM) performers who are often under played or uncredited for their influence on contemporary music. A custom scent will be infused into the space to create mindfulness with participants, grounding them in the space  and presence unique to the room. Self portraits will be hung on the wall, exposing blemishes and scars often seen as shameful or ugly but reclaiming these marks as beautiful or otherworldly. The two performers will explore their boundaries of friendship and support and demonstrate to participants the gentle delight of moments we can’t often share in a public forum without being shamed or misrepresented or sexualized. 

The installation and performance draw on second wave feminist consciousness raising practices and would include a limited number of participants who will be able to engage with the work in an intimate setting. As a Metis artists Lucille will explore “re-storying” female narratives of self worth and self care into inclusive matriarchal practice. Traditional Knowledge passed to the artist instills values of healing through creation, not a centred method for therapy in the western world where talk therapy or CBT are the go to for mental health professionals.