>>PREVIEW
THE LABORATORY OF FEMINIST PATAPHYSICS
Runs until March 31
Mireille Perron
The New Gallery
Mireille Perron drank the proverbial Kool-Aid, but lucky for us she has regurgitated it in new and interesting ways. With an explosion of brightly coloured yarn, licorice strings, pungent spices and candy sculptures, the artist mocks the institutional structures she works within.
With an impressive record of publications and exhibitions, the artist has spent years in the hallowed halls of academia navigating dense mazes of history and theory. One day though, it must all have became too much – the oppressive weight of millennia of Western, scientific, male-dominated views of the world, the arrogance of classifying and categorizing everything in sight, the folly of imposing laws and cures on all manner of phenomena!
What could be done to counteract this imposing mythology? Perron decided to fight officialdom with officialdom, and the Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics was born.
Based on an idea put forth by absurdist playwright Alfred Jarry, Pataphysics is the science of imaginary solutions. According to Perron though, this "indiscipline" has long been dominated by men. In her introduction, she explains that the practitioners of Feminist Pataphysics think of their work as "the invention of engendered science through fictive narratives."
In constructing her laboratory and all its attendant equipment and documentation, Perron gleefully embraces the cultural trappings of science and academia, then subverts them with silliness.
The gallery is populated by a set of Emergency Mobile Units meant to be deployed in cases where an immediate Feminist Pataphysical intervention is required. As a collection, these objects are impressively clinical. Wheeled contraptions of various shapes and sizes topped with red sirens and reflectors, they are clad in stainless steel and bristling with strange and wonderful laboratory paraphernalia. Test tubes of brightly coloured liquids and powders, vats filled with strands of red licorice and animal cages housing rabbits made from green candy perched on crocheted rainbow-hued blankets are among the objects on display.
The first unit deals with the subject of identity. Hanging from a metal rail by surgical tubing, several drawings of beavers with their hind legs splayed are printed onto clear plexiglas cut-outs. These beavers, however, look distinctly frightened. Below, a steel bucket contains a handful of shrivelled pastry spheres.
A plaque on one side of the vehicle explains the history of the word beaver, or "castor," in French. From its earliest reference in the writings of Pliny the Elder, the beaver has been prized for its testicles, used to make medicine. Medieval bestiaries claimed that male beavers saved themselves by biting off their testicles and throwing them at the hunters. The name castor is said to have evolved from the animal's association with castration.
Perron's use of language is particularly intriguing. Her texts reflect intellectual discourse, but through a distorted funhouse mirror. Upon closer study though, scathing critique is embedded in all the absurdity.
The artist has divided her Laboratory into three different institutes, each intended to tackle a different set of problems: The Institute for Corporate Pudding, The Institute for Cosmic Procrastination and The Institute for Confounding Pretension.
The work of The Institute for Corporate Pudding sounds especially fascinating. It is dedicated to "symptomatic absurdities" – the organization's "Ouija Board of Governors" has outlined a vision in which all senior researchers will be replaced by sheep. A cost-neutral measure, this will promote corporate conformity. Fortunately, the Institute's latest discovery is a "Vaccine for Contagious Platitude."
The most spectacular and poignant piece in the exhibition is the Launch Pad for The Institute of Cosmic Procrastination. A giant red doily embroidered with neon yellow and green ribbons forms the target for a model hot-air balloon constructed from thin sheets of pink and yellow plastic. Its basket is knitted from rainbow-striped yarn and weighted down with long wool stockings full of spicy curry and cumin. Huge and graceful, it seems to hover just before takeoff. Like Perron's work, it offers the delicious possibility of escape, though rooted to the ground. |
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