12 Wunjo
Picture
Joy
Joséphine A. Garibaldi


Joséphine A. Garibaldi, co-artistic director of Callous Physical Theatre, is an interdisciplinary artist scholar dedicated to fostering collaborative art-making across communities, disciplines and cultures regionally, nationally and internationally through a dialogic practice of art-making and pedagogy. From environmental and performance installations, movement, sound and text based visual poetry, Garibaldi has collaboratively devised original performance, installation and digital works nationally and internationally for over 35 years.
I struggled with this rune. Drawn upright, Wunjo means joy, light and happiness. I certainly do not perceive myself as embodying these traits. Happiness is work, a conscious choice I endeavor.

Clearly this rune called upon my many memories of a lifetime of joy and love of living. The years of stress and struggle are mapped on my face and hands but there is light there and I am happy.
I surround myself with all that embodies joy:
  • my daily relationship with my partner,
  • my love of the outdoors,
  • digging in the dirt,
  • watching the birds and the butterflies in the garden(s) we have created,
  • fat tire, single-flowy trails and strenuous uphill climbs,
  • chewy beer,
  • homemade dark sourdough rye bread,
  • Red-shouldered hawks, Pileated woodpeckers and frogs on our windows,
  • waking up to the sound of a herd of elk grazing in the high mountain park next to our backcountry camp in the Wind River Range,
  • frigid cold that freezes your wet hair when stripping off the sweaty layers after a morning's cross-country ski in -15 below temperatures in Decorah,
  • fresh prosciutto and sheep's cheese on a warm summer's day at our first artist residency in Assisi,
  • hearing the sublime song of the lyre bird in the Tarra Bulga Rainforest in Gippsland,
  • shopping at the Rīgas Centrāltirgus and celebrating the midsummer festival Ligō in Latvia,
  • enjoying a much deserved sauna with Sahti after working all day on our Birch Loops installation in Hameenkyrö, Finland,
  • building and living in our performance and art space Barefoot Studios at the end of the Thea Foss Waterway in Tacoma,
  • breakfasting with a family of moose that walked casually into and then rested at our backcountry camp site in the Tetons,
  • coming of age in San Francisco in the 70s and 80s,
  • our cats Fatty Arbuckle and Miss Becky,
  • my '75 VW camper bus,
  • grandma's attic...
the list goes on in perpetuity.
The images of Wunjo I pulled from my storage of unused footage from past projects and travels. The sound is from field recordings of a rusty windmill and sheep's bells layered with grasshopper song captured while walking on a country road near Messejana, Portugal.