Program

Thursday, September 22

EXPOSE 5: 7:00 - 11:30PM
PERFORMANCES: EMILIO ROJAS / FRANCIS MARION MOSELY WILSON
REGINA PUBLIC LIBRARY / DUNLOP ART GALLERY
2311 12th Avenue

Alien Tears

Emilio Rojas – Mexico/USA

Alien Tears began and continues with the daily collection of the piece Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA) 1991, from Felix Gonzales-Torres, from the Art Institute of Chicago to public spaces outside of the museum. Through this process Emilio Rojas has been working with AIDS-activist/artist Paul Escriva, who has been the mentor and bridge connecting with this past, which created a rupture of an entire generation. This performance traces a history of mourning & loss through the figure of the outcast, as cited in the poem “Ballad of Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde, written while in exile after being imprisoned in 1895 for homosexual offences. Using a rhyzomatic structure the performance connects popular culture, with art history, the AIDS crisis, survivorship, the Kübler-Ross model, Ana Mendieta, PULSE, and the Lorde (Audrey Lorde). Canadian Premiere

Photo credit: Didier Morelli

Cuddle

Francis Marion Moseley Wilson – USA

Cuddle is a durational performance for one performer with a teddy bear and dead rabbit. The performer uses traditional taxidermy techniques to exchange the insides of the teddy bear and rabbit, and afterwards cuddles and sleeps with the altered teddy bear. The work questions what the craft of taxidermy is attempting to achieve and the anthropomorphization of objects and animals. Using decaying flesh or materials that elicit a response of disgust, or are considered ‘gross’ or unclean, cuddle presents and confrontation that challenges our understanding of bodies, boundaries, and cultural values surrounding purity and cleanliness. Canadian Premiere

Photo credit: Eastman Presseer