Cedar Roppola
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Paintings
Much of my work is created in dialogue with landscape, shaped through a responsive movement practice developed over a decade of Butoh training and performance. I work by listening deeply to the body in relationship with the environment — a dynamic space shaped by personal and communal histories of violence, grief, power, surrender, growth, and repair. I draw on mythologies (both imagined and rooted in tradition) to explore these ideas. Finnish myths like the story of Aino from The Kalevala offer powerful narratives of refusal and transformation. Reading them through a queer, post-human lens inspires me to engage more deeply — through place, body, and dialogue with tradition and culture of my ancestry.
Paintings are derived from both documentation of performance in place as well as the embodied experiences and 'images' that arose within the body.
Performance: Beyond the unbearable light of day
Beyond the unbearable light of day was performed at KEPK, Brisbane, May 2025. On opening if the Dualist Engine group exhibition. The sound design was by collaborator Orthotyp_a. This is an excerpt from the 20 minute piece.
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AV works
My work is process-driven and rooted in embodied practice, particularly through the influence of Butoh dance. This practice responds to the environment and place while non-consciously unpacking personal histories stored in the body. In these moments, personal experiences of violence collide with the environmental, creating a deeply layered dialogue. I created a series of "private performances with the earth," capturing these through video recordings that are heavily layered, altered, and collaged with sound. This recent body of work explores ecofeminism, examining power structures, patriarchal capitalism, and the connections between ecological and gendered violence. It reflects on surviving domestic and sexual violence, as well as the processes of renewal and reclaiming a sense of self, while positioning the body within a larger context of the landscape and natural forces. Personal mythology plays a central role in my work, evolving alongside references to Finnish mythology from my ancestry, which resonate with these struggles. Historical echoes of gendered violence, such as the witch burnings, also inform the themes I explore, creating a dialogue between the past and the present.
