MARYSE
LARIVIÈRE
PORTFOLIO
ARTIST STATEMENT
Maryse Lariviere (1978, Montreal, Canada) is an artist whose practice encompasses dreamed realities,
psy-choanalytic examinations, reposts to published work, reiterations and collaborations. Taking the form of
performance, video, sculpture and writing, her work lies at the intersection of art, literature, politics and
theory. Passion always comes over reason in her unorthodox art writings.
Of course, the core of Larivière’s practice is art writing, and equally the point of departure for her
elabo-rate sculptural installations and performances. With her prose and poetry, Lariviere attempts to grasp the
invisible by making meaning through metaphorical language and metafiction. Often her works appear as
dreamlike images in which fiction and reality meet, well-known tropes merge, meanings shift and
twir-laround, past and present fuse, and where time, or its absence, and memory always fleet and fade away...
Transformed into art, her oneiric visions become speculative and critical spaces for the possibility to
understand the world through emotions, affect and imagination. As this process allows Larivière to
chan-nel unconscious desires and other immaterial subject matters, many ambiguities and indistinctnesses
emerges to the surface of her artworks.
Meanwhile, her performances focus on the inability of communication and make visible certain reality of
the mind. Larivière’s experimental plays and performances underline the always unattainable attempt at
dialogue by conjuring the dissonance between form and content and the dysfunctions of language.
In short, her obtuse references the history of art are key elements in her work. By investigating language
on a meta-level, Larivière amplifies the astonishment of the spectator by creating compositions or
set-tings that generate tranquil poetic images that leave traces and balances on the edge of recognition and
alienation.
Concentramenti e Itinerari a Roma
The bright turquoise motorcycle is slanting dangerously. We are speed driving around the
Coliseum, to fnally get to the piazza Mattei. Almost there, almost arrived at the
Il Museo Del
Louvre before it closes for the summer holidays! Paolo really wants me to talk to Giuseppe
Casetti, the owner of this eclectic art bookstore in downtown Rome.
We look a bit frantic, but Giuseppe is always generous when it comes to talk about his work,
his photograph and book collection, the library... We chat about Francesca Woodman, about
her frst exhibition at his galleria Maldoror, about the Futurists, the poster he published
mapping their activities around the city. Giuseppe gives me a copy of the FUTURMAPA to take
back to the studio with me. I purchase a vintage photograph depicting a child in a costume
doing an esoteric hand gesture.
Concentramenti e Itinerari a Roma
is a poetic account of my peregrinations through Rome,
following the Futurists' path around the city with my camera on an imperceptible time travel
with poetess Valentine de Saint-Point (1875-1953), a Futurist Woman as my guide, and in a
pursuit of the surrealist dream of American photographer Francesca Woodman (1958-1981).
Unfolding as an art installation, a performance, and a publication, each parts of the project,
through a discussion on the history of performance art and its relationship to photography,
re-invent Rome as an improbable meeting point of the two mythic woman artists de Saint-Point
and Woodman.
A residency at Triangle would be an ideal context for me to develop a new publication project,
and sculptural installation, following a stay in Rome, Italy. I am particularly attracted by the
residency's location, and its proximity to the ocean in hope my writing practice benefts from
this urban context on the coast, and allow me to focus solely on this specifc project I am to
propose here.
A residency at Triangle would greatly contribute to the development of my practice as the
project expands the boundaries of the visual art realm through the coalescence of sculpture,
performance, literature and theatre. Traveling to the Italian and French Riviera would also
allow me to exchange with artists and scholars from all over Europe while being exposed to a
cultural context that is relatively new to me.
Taking imaginative liberties with the interview form, or imbedding anecdotes into academic
writing, my publications discuss art and politics amidst issues of feminism and history. As
such, I will allow my encounters with the fellow resident at Triangle to impact and infuse my
literary project, and thus become a secret testimony as well of my time in Marseille.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Maryse Larivière
Born in 1978, Montreal; Lives & work in
Toronto, Canada
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[email protected]
+1
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514
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224
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www.maryse.pavilionprojects.com
EDUCATION
PhD Arts & Visual Culture
, Western University, 2015
MFA Studio Arts
, University of Guelph, 2011
BFA Major Photography
, Concordia University, 2001
SOLO SHOWS
2014
Be Your Tears Wet?
, Toronto Kunstverein, Toronto (upcoming)
B.I.B.L.E., Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
, DNA Artspace, London (upcoming)
Performance: Under the Cave of the Wind
, CCA Glasgow, (upcoming)
B.I.B.L.E., Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
, Galerie Maguire, Montreal
B.I.B.L.E. Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth
, Artlab Gallery, London
2013
Performance: Something Had To Change For Everything To Stay As It Was, Art Metropole, Toronto
2012
Something Had To Change For Everything To Stay As It Was
, Parker Branch, London
2011
The Hollow,
Clint Roenisch, Toronto
2006
Le Trou
, en collaboration avec David Armstrong-Six, L’espace Kugler, Genève
Pour vous - Planter le décor,
en collaboration avec Olivier Choinère, Le Lobe, Chicoutimi
Wild is the Wind
, Centre CLARK, Montreal
2002
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2014
Performance: !?, The Pipe Factory, Glasgow
Special project: Hypnotic Show, by Raimundas Malasauskas Marcos Lutyens, Toronto Kunstverein, Toronto
Magenta
, curator Ella Dawn, Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto
I Think of You
, commissaire Daisy Desrosiers, Battat Contemporary, Montreal
2013
Intervention: Guilda, Ilona, Andrea, en collaboration avec Nadège G. Forget, VOX image contemporaine
Boys with no Frogs
, DNA Artspace, London
2011
Le Choix de Paris, curated by Elsy Lahner, Cité Internationale de Paris, Paris
Performance: Revolution & Rehabilitation, commissaire Robin Simpson, Red Bird studio, Montreal
Feuillle Mobile,
Le Lobe, Chicoutimi
If not the ocean, then the sound
, Ed Video Media Art Center, Guelph
Chalk and Butter,
Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
2009
Art Moves
, curated by The Other Gallery, Nuit Blanche Toronto, Toronto
Performance: Soirée QuéCan dans pool, VIVA! Art Action International Performance Festival, Montreal
Video: G-List, Guelph goodwater, Toronto
2008
Se Revoir,
Le Lobe, Chicoutimi
2007
Video: Art Contemporain et Sport, curated by Lionel Balouin, Galerie Edouard Manet, Gennevilier,
2006
Video: Sport & Politique, Festival Les Instants Vidéo, La Compagnie, Marseille
Video: Vue d’Art 3 Statisme/Gravité, commissaire Emmanuel Galland, L’Écart, Rouyn
2005
Performance: Stereo Seduction, Villa Arson, Nice
Projet special: Correspondance, Caravansérail Rimouski
Video: Festival Le Livre & l’Art, commissaire Collectif La Valise, Le Lieu Unique Nantes
Video: FORMULE(S), La Briqueterie, Amiens
COLLECTIONS PUBLIQUES
Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition Féminine du Québec à Chicoutimi
Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec - Collection Prêt d’art d’oeuvres
ART WRITING
2014
Under the Cave of the Winds
, CCA GLasgow (upcoming)
Somnanbule
, Studiolo Textes, Montreal (upcoming)
Are Your Tears Wet?
, Toronto Kunstverein, Toronto (upcoming)
Telepathic Conversation
, collaboration with Mackenzie Ludlow, Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto
Speak What?
, Rearviews reviews, WWTWO gallery Montreal
The Parrot
, CMagazine, issue 122 Summer 2014, Toronto
Les dimensions d’une ombre
, co-écrit avec Ania Wroblesky, Cédille journal for French Studies, Spain
Pressure Island
, The Lake, ed. Maggie Groat, Art Metropole, Toronto
B.I.B.L.E. A Relationship Book About Everything Called Right
, ARTLAB, London
2013
Guilda, Ilona, Andrea,
en collaboration avec Nadège Greibmeir Forget, Montreal
Everything We Talked About Last Night, And Our Experience Of The World As Something Strange Is A
Liberation,
Art Metropole, Toronto
La discrétion des expériences
, PELT #2, Organism for Poetic Research, New York
Help! The New Written Art Object
, Indignation - Issue 77,Esse arts + opinions magazine, Montreal
2012
The Momentum & The Forest Are One
, Pages of Vapour, ed. Tiziana Lamelia, Vancouver
Something has to change for everything to stay as it is
. Parker Branch gallery, London
2011
Adiante,
Cité des Arts, Paris
My Dream of Tinguely
, Diaz Contemporary, Toronto
2010
Amor
, Grace magazine, ed. Robin Simpson, Montreal
Stendhal Syndrome
, The Other Gallery, Nuit Blanche Toronto
RESIDENCIES
2014 CCA:, Glasgow, UK
2011 “Dexter Sinister: From the Toolbox of a Serving Library”, The Banff Centre, Banff Canada
2010 Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris France
The Model, Sligo, Ireland
2009 Reverse Pedagogy II, The Other Gallery, Venice, Italy
2006 Le Lobe, Chicoutimi Canada
Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris France
2005 Villa Arson, Nice France
SELECTED GRANTS & SCHOLARSHIPS
Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2014 - 2015
University of Western Ontario, Lynne-Lionel Scott Scholarship in Canadian Studies, 2014 - 2015
University of Western Ontario, Mary Routledge Fellowships 2014
Quebec Art Council, International Residency grant/Glasgow Scotland studio, 2014
Graham & Gale Wright Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2013 - 2014
James P. & Margaret A. Carr Ontario Graduate Scholarship, 2012 - 2013
University of Western Ontario, PASF Award, 2012 - 2013
University of Western Ontario, Graduate Research Scholarship, 2011 - 2012
University of Western Ontario, Entrance Scholarship, 2011
Canada Art Council, Travel Grant, 2011
The Banff Centre, Midsummer Ball Scholarship for Visual Arts, 2011
University of Guelph, The Axelrod Scholarship, 2011
University of Guelph, Registrar’s Research & Travel Grant, 2010
University of Guelph, Canadian Federation of University Women Scholarship, 2010
University of Guelph, SOFAM MFA Studio ArtS Program Funding, 2009 - 2010
Les Offices jeunesse Québec, Independant curatorial project grant, France, 2010
Quebec Art Council, Recherche et création type B grant, 2009
Office Québec Wallonie, mission culturelle Bruxelles, 2007
Quebec Art Council, Travel grant, 2006
Quebec Art Council, Residence grant “Les Inclassables” Paris/Nice France, 2005 - 2006
Quebec Art Council, Production grant visual arts type B, 2002
SELECTED PRESS
Books & exhibition catalogues:
- Bethune-Leaman, Katie. “Chalk and Butter” Diaz Contemporary, Toronto May 2011.
- Campeau, Sylvain & al. “L’imprimé numérique en art contemporain.” Chicoutimi: Art Le Sabord, 2007.
- Gilbert, André. “Autoportrait dans le photo contemporaine canadienne.” Québec: Éditions J’ai Vu, 2004.
- Fortin, Kathy. “L’Illusion du réel.” Centre arts actuels SKOL, Montréal, 2003.
Specialized publications:
- Neudorf, Kim. “Maryse Lariviere at ArtLab Gallery” , Akimboblog, January 2014.
- Neudorf, Kim. “No Boys with Frogs at DNA Artspace” , Akimboblog, December 2013.
- Edwards, SB. “Wild is the Wind à la galerie Clark”; CV Ciel Variable 73; Montréal septembre 2006.
Magazines & newspapers:
- Crevier, Lyne. “Coup de bambou.” ICI; Montréal 13 avril 2006.
- Woodley, Matthew. “Couples Uncoiled.” Mirror; Mtl 9 mars 2006.
- Mavrikakis, Nicolas. “Chabot & Larivière.” VOIR; Mtl 9 mars 2006.
- Woodley, Matthew. “NoiseMakers 2003 - Infusions of Intimacy.” Mirror, Montréal, 9 janvier 2003.
- Smith, Joanna. “Out of this world and into Larivière’s.” The Link; Montréal, 8 octobre 2002.
- Shinn, Erik. “Romantic Records.” The Hour; Montréal, 3 octobre 2002.
- Philipson, Claire. “Objects of affection.” Mirror; Montréal, 19 septembre 2002.
Radio & Television:
- Brassard-Halle, Aude. CBC Radio One. Toronto; 20 aout 2011.
PAVILION PROJECTS - Curatorial project in collaboration with ROBIN SIMPSON
2010
On n’enchaine pas les volcans - Abbas Akhevan, Katie Bethune-Leamen
,Printemps de Septembre, Toulouse,
The Five Fingers of Malakoff - Zin Taylor,
en partenariat 234523, Maison des Arts, Malakoff
Ulla von Brandenburg & Julie Favreau,
Guelph Goodwater gallery, Toronto
2009
Screening: Outwardly toward the earth center - Rosa Barba, Oddfellows, Toronto
Screening: Sad in Country - Komplot, Dep Le Pick-Up, Montreal
Festival: OFF BNL MTL, an art community event with 20 artists and institutions, Montreal
The Wrong Corpse - Julie Favreau, Olivier Choinière & Mark-Antoine K. Phaneuf
,
Leonard & Bina Ellen - Concordia University Art Gallery Montreal
Screening: Couples - Valerie Mréjen, Dep Le Pick-Up, Montreal
Screening: Black Star - Heather & Ivan Morison, Dep Le Pick-Up, Montreal
Screening: Théâtre de Poche - Aurélien Froment, Dep Le Pick-Up Montreal
2008
Publication: MTL ART MAP , curated listing of exhibitions in Montreal published 3 times/year until 2011
Screening: Put Your Eye in your Mouth - Zin Taylor, Drawn & Quaterly, Montreal
Special Project: Among Us - Tom & Simon Bloor, David Armstrong-Six, & The Enterprise, POP Montreal
2006
The Enterprise
, Articule Artist-Run Center, Montreal
The Enterprise - Réforme 2008,
en collaboration avec Emmanuel Galland, VIVA art action, Montreal
Reshuffle: Notions of an Itinerant Museum
, curated by Bard CCS, Art in General, New York
2005
Performance: 1 1/2 Metro Côte-des-Neige - Mathieu Beauséjour, Villa Arson, Nice
Event: Castles, Pyramids... - Fermière Obsédées, David Armstrong-Six, Luis Jacob, Will Munro,
Centre Dare-Dare & POP Montreal
I am making a crazy quilt and I want your face for the center - Ulla von Brandenburg
, A Studio, Montreal
2004
This Call was to Have Effect
, La Centrale, Montreal
Its Beautiful but Things are Gonna Change - Stephanie Chabot, Geneviève & Mathieu
, POP Montreal
Everybody Else is Wrong - Iain Forsythe & Jane Pollard
, Arcade St-Laurent, Montreal
PAVILION PROJECTS - SELECTED PRESS
- McKee, Jesse. “Pavilion Projects.” Catalogue magazine, 2010.
- Poulin, Patrick. “Trivial Pursuit, Biennale de Montreal 2009 et Off Biennale.” ETC Montreal, Automne 2009.
- Vaughan, R.M.. “Pavilion Projects’s ‘The Enterprise’.” CANADIAN ART; Toronto, Issue Spring 2007.
- Charron, Marie-Ève. “L’Off-Biennale a le vent dans les voiles.” LE DEVOIR 10 mai 2009.
- Charron, Marie-Ève. “Un véritable supplément vitaminé – L’OFF Biennal propose une programmation
éclaté dans toute la ville.” LE DEVOIR 2 mai 2009.
- Paiement, Geneviève; “Pulled Pork & Performance Art.” T Magazine, New York Times, august 2009.
- Diack, Heather. “Galleries Without Borders.” HIVE No. 4; Toronto, sept. 2004.
AN ATTEMPT TO LIVE OUTSIDE TIME BY LIVING IN A PART OF TIME,
AN ATTEMPT TO LIVE TIMELESSLY IN THE PAST AND IN THE FUTURE.
2014
In collaboration with Mackenzie Ludlow.
(Pool noodle, wood, fake tree, orgone quilt, chair, plaster, bird seeds, plastic chain, metal chain,
wind chimes, lard balls, plastic green leaf, ribbon and a pin with pearl.)
Larivière and Ludlow’s hypercolour garden, An Attempt To Live Outside Time By Living In A Part of
Time, An Attempt To Live Timelessly In The Past And In The Future, perches on the 4th dimension,
scantily recolonized by two Venetian lovebirds. Its previous residents have checked in, dropped out,
and floated away. The hands on the clock rest at ten and two.
B.I.B.L.E. BASICS INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE LEAVING EARTH.
2014
(Light string, steel wool, fake plant, orgone quilt, chair, dog leash, plastic and wooden balls, vase,
metal hanger, concrete pyramid, pool noodle, metallic fan, paper clip, swan, vintage light bulb.)
In Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, Maryse Larivière builds on Surrealist artistic and literary
forms to conjure an otherworldly domestic scene: a floating chair, a houseplant turned on its side, a
religious icon, bird shit, a giant beaded necklace on a banana hanger, a vintage ashtray, a small fan,
an orgone blob, a quilted black magic carpet, stripes, polka dots, coloured LED lights, an exit sign,
and a series of writings penned at the threshold of consciousness…. Libidinal aesthetics.
CLEOPATRA.
2013
Performance in collaboration with Nadège Greibmeir-Forget.
(Mirror, artist’s book, gin tonic, red lipstick, cameras.)
In collaboration with Nadège Greibmeir-Forget, Maryse Larivière critically intervene in the exhibition
Photography Works by Jon Knowles at VOX Centre de l’Image Contemporaine à Montréal. Their
per-formance consist of a feminist critique of the gentrification due to the newly established
“Entertain-ment District” where the gallery’s new contemporary institutional exhibition spaces are now located.
Cleopatra
,
VOX Centre de l’Image Contemporaine, Montreal, QC, December 2013.
EVERYTHING WE TALKED ABOUT LAST NIGHT
2013
(Artist’s book)
Taking imaginative liberties with the interview form, Maryse Larivière’s publication Everything We
Talked About Last Night discusses art and politics amidst issues of feminism and Canadian history
with a little help from ‘Dov Charney’, the CEO of American Apparel. Published on the occasion of the
performance Something has to change for everything to stay as it is. Something had to change for
everything to stay as it was, in April 2013 at Art Metropole in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY AS IT IS.
2012
(Peformance, artist’s book, quilt, found photograph, books.)
Taking imaginative liberties with the interview form, Maryse Larivière’s publication Something has
to change for everything to stay as it is. Something had to change for everything to stay as it was.
discusses art and politics amidst issues of feminism and Canadian history with a little help from
‘Margaret Trudeau’. Published for the exhibition Something has to change for everything to stay as it
is. Something had to change for everything to stay as it was. April 2012 at Parker Branch in London,
Ontario, Canada.
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE FOR EVERYTHING TO STAY AS IT IS.
2012
(Artist’s book)
Short-listed for the
“Artist’s Book of the Moment/ABotM”
prize by Art Gallery of York University,
Canada 2014.
Taking imaginative liberties with the interview form, Maryse Larivière’s publication Something has
to change for everything to stay as it is. Something had to change for everything to stay as it was.
discusses art and politics amidst issues of feminism and Canadian history with a little help from
‘Margaret Trudeau’. Published for the exhibition Something has to change for everything to stay as it
is. Something had to change for everything to stay as it was. April 2012 at Parker Branch in London,
Ontario, Canada.
ADIANTE & LEVITATING IN THE STUDIO 2011
(Poster, 10 minutes performance for video.)
Adiante est une courte autofiction à propos d’une anedocte psychanalytique au ton humoristique.
Ce projet, s’intéresse à l’émergence de la photogpraphie, de la psychanalyse et de l’invention de
l’hystérie à Paris au début du 20e siècle tel que l’a formulé Georges Didi-Huberman, qui fait
obser-vation de l’aspect performantif du travail de Charcot avec ses patientes hystériques. La video e veut
donc une re-performance d’une image connue de Charcot prisent à la Salpétrière, mais aussi d’une
image inconique de Bruce Nauman, Failing to Levitate in the Studio 1966.
ADIANTE
Une bonne amie à moi, soucieuse de mon bien-être, me conseille de prendre
ren-dez-vous avec sa psychanalyste. Je contacte ladite psy qui me dirige plutôt vers
son collègue S., un jeune spécialiste en CBT, pour traiter ma peur des hommes.
Pris de court par son interrogatoire, c’est du moins ainsi que je formule la raison
de ma demande de consultation. J’accepte sans même me demander si cette
rencontre m’intéresse. Le rendez-vous est rapidement fixé pour le lundi suivant.
Seule dans la salle d’attente, je suis assise directement face à la porte menant à
son cabinet. C’est déjà l’heure de mon rendez-vous, mais la porte ne s’ouvre pas.
La salle d’attente est décorée de façon faussement luxueuse, avec de petits objets
antiques qui m’inspirent plus ou moins. Une adiante située près de la fenêtre
attire immédiatement mon regard, pour se poser ensuite sur la reproduction
d’un Monet, le fameux San Giorgio Maggiore Soleil Couchant à Venise de 1908.
Ce qui a de bien par contre avec cette pièce, c’est qu’elle est toute petite. Il y
a le plancher qui craque, le tapis épais avec des motifs hypnotisant, la fenêtre
qui donne sur une petite cour toute tranquille. C’est paisible, je m’y sens bien.
Bon, il a du retard, quoique pour un psy, être à l’heure, c’est étrange. En fait, la
séance débute toujours en salle d’attente, ou est-ce en partie une délusion de ma
part? Cette attente est probablement un peu voulu pour me gêner. Et ce silence,
ça m’intimide. En même temps, il me plonge dans l’état d’esprit idéal pour
l’analyse. Le silence peut aussi en faire aussi partie, il faudra l’interpréter...
Ma première rencontre avec le psychanalyste S. est plutôt
rassuran-te. Toutefois, de retour à la maison, une seule pensée me revient
con-stamment à l’esprit. Plutôt banale, elle m’apparait sans conséquence; sa
chevelure. Assise devant l’ordinateur, je tape son nom complet dans
un moteur de recherche sur internet. Le résultat me laisse stupéfaite: S.
est le gagnant d’une émission de rencontre, une téléréalité séduction.
THE HOLLOW 2011
(Quilts, photographs, wax baguette, double-bind plaster glasses, hollowed chairs, bookcases,
peep-hole portal mirror.)
This is my very own private cup. Ma tasse privée. I am the only one who ever drank from it. Even
you never used it. You bought me the cup in Sienna, Italy. You travelled a lot, everywhere. Whenever
we were apart, even as children, we would meet at night through telepathy. At exactly ten o’clock, I
would think very hard of you, and you would think very hard of me.
THE PURPLE CLOUD 2011
(Performance, French baguette bread, artist’s book)
In collaboration with Zin Taylor.
Following a telepathic seance between artists Larivière, Toronto, and Taylor, Brussels, Zin Taylor
pro-duced a text analyzing the experience while ruminating a set of instructions for Larivière to be guided
through during a performance in the gallery space at Clint Roenisch gallery. The effect is indeed quite
striking as Larivière summons and channels Taylors’s original and unique voice through her body,
thus creating a collaborative poetic space from the invisible, ethereal distance between them.
MY DREAM OF TINGUELY 2011
(Elastics, aluminium foil, wood, plastic straps, 2-channel HD video, artist’s book.)
MY DREAM OF TINGUELY OR THE FIRST DREAM I EVER HAD OF MAKING AN ARTWORK.
On the périphérique, we are driving out of Paris. I feel somewhat scared to be driving on the highway on a scooter. I am holding on tight to my driver, my arms circling him as my whole body is leaned on him. Arriving in an industrial neighborhood in an eastern banlieue, we cross over a bridge, over La Marne river, from where he points out an open-air dance hall. We slowly pass downtown, arriving in an industrial zone, now inhabited by cinema studios.
We zigzag in the parking lot until we find our lot, in front of his atelier. The building is huge. It has thirty-meter high ceilings. Its triangular peak has windows to catch the northern light; a day-long natural lighting system that offers the best conditions for a photographer’s eye.
After walking across a long pitch-black corridor which allows us to cross the first shared atelier without disturbing their work, we arrive at his studio. The room is bright, the light is soft. A few flowery moulds are stored on one side, a washed-out ghostly Virgin Mary statue surveys all of our movements. Le Minotaure overshadows everything. The room is a mess of metal pieces, wood works, machinery and all sorts of mad engineer, magician-like artifacts. We pass it almost without noticing, as we have a specific task ahead of us.
Aligned on the wall, isolated from everything else, the two works are there. One vertical, one horizontal. They have never been seen. Hidden away in a collector’s safe, they had just changed hands, as we say in the business. Their storage had inevitably caused the pieces to deteriorate, as their mechanical parts require continuous upkeeping. The new owner wants the motors to be restored for the paintings to be activated again.
We look at them briefly. One tableau has a black background, four very thin white rectangles and three circles, a blue, a red and a white one, all of differ-ent dimensions.
The second tableau has a washed-out white background, but in more colorful. Its movable geometric forms are more disparate, and includes triangles, one azure green and the other of a greyer green. I touch the black pentagon to see the kinesis of the painting. There is also one big pale blue circle, three rectangles, a red, a grey and a thin forest green one.
I ask if we can turn over the paintings. I want to photograph their backs, their insides, their guts. We manipulate the paintings very carefully.
Behind the paintings are boxes that contain the mechanisms to ani-mate the geometric forms. They have never been opened except by the artist himself, fifty years ago. The boxes are made of pressed wood. We lift the covers, one after the other.
What we find are wood reels on shafts, with pulleys that rotate with the aid of a black rubber engine belt. It is a small-gear steel and copper motor. The pulleys are sculpted by hand, and we can see the traces of time left by the rubber band. The black strap is tender and floppy in one, while it seems to have been constricted and disintegrated into powder in the other box. The metal used to tie the pulleys to the frame looks like recycled tincans.
I load the film in my camera, set it on a tripod, and proceed to take the pictures of both paintings separately.
ART WRITING
cmagazine 122
Summer 2014
The Parrot
by
Maryse Larivière
Maryse Larivière meets Polly, the world’s smartest African Grey parrot.
Psittacine language interpretation by Ania Wroblewski.
MARYSE:
What’s the Pope story again?
POLLY:
I don’t know of any more updates! That was kinda it...Check Perez Hilton’s
blog maybe?
Oh yeah, I got it here: “Pope blesses porn star’s giant parrot... Francis came closer, gently put his fingers in the bird’s talons to shower it with Lord’s grace.” P: Francis is a huge fan of us, pappagallos.
In the Garden of Eden, all animals could speak, but after Eve ate the forbidden fruit, only the parrot could speak. The Pope knows very well that parrots, since they are the last witnesses of the Garden of Eden, are the messengers of God, and the voice of great happiness! Oh actually, you know what, that reminds me that there is a part in I Love Dick where there is a bird. Let me check...
It’s true, Sylvère Lotringer has a bird, and it’s supposed to represent his double. It’s so good... I can’t find the page either...
P: Yeah, I re-read it the other day... Oh, here, I found it! It’s on page seventy one. The bird’s name – and it’s a parrot too – is Loulou, after Flaubert of course!
Yeah, okay. I’m gonna start reading it to you. So, Sylvère and Chris are moving their stuff from one storage bin to another. And Sylvère is too cheap so they are trying to fit everything in one that’s too small for the amount of stuff that they have. They end up having to throw away a bird cage in order to make their stuff fit. “But finally it all fits when they agree to
throw away the gilded cage they’d bought in Colton at the Pets’R’Us liquidation sale for 30 bucks, a bargain. The bird had long since flown away. Driving back through
Encinitas, at the end of their cheap and dusty impromptu vacation in Baja last September they’d bought a small green conure parrot on the roadside, hiding it under the car-seat when they drove across the border. Loulou - they’d name it for Félicité’s pet in Flaubert’s A Simple Heart - had been Sylvère’s Bird Correlative. He fed it lettuce leaves and seeds, confided to it, tried to teach it words. But one sunny autumn day, he left the cage door open on the deck so Loulou could get a better view of the freshly snow-capped peaks of Lake Gregory. As he watched astonished, and quickly broken-hearted, Loulou flew from the bird-cage to the railing to the giant pine, and finally out of view. They’d bought every bird accessory but the wing-clip. “He chose freedom,’ Sylvère repeated sadly.”
P: Ha ha! There, another parrot for you! Does Chris Kraus wish she was the parrot, though? Is this what the pas-sage is really about?
I guess she did feel somewhat over-protected by Sylvère to a point where she needed to escape... What’s interesting about the “Sylvère” character in the book, which never gets discussed anyways, is how he lets “Chris” be. He completely allows her to chase after her desires and sincerely supports her creative quest for freedom. P: Oh well, that’s an interesting
align-ment between a living philosopher, Lotringer, and Félicité, Flaubert’s fictional maid.
Félicité is humble – simple but not simple-minded... Her name stands for both wisdom and happiness. I guess in their own way, both Sylvère and Félicité are looking for greater things than them-selves, finding solace in their relationships with their parrots?
P: Yeah, a faith in the parrot; a mix of down-to-earth and flamboyant belief!
It’s a nice subversion to think of the parrot as an icon of feminine eman-cipation. There is a rich iconography of parrots throughout art history – in many cultures, for that matter.
8
On Writing
P: The first Europeans to ever travel to Brazil actually thought they’d arrived in the Garden of Eden because there were parrots everywhere!
That’s where the Pope comes from, no? There are definitely a lot of women with
parrots in Western art.
P: The art world is quite an exotic subculture with lots of gossip girls not unlike the talking parrot!
Right! I know you’re joking but women were once called “parrots,” a demeaning metaphor implying that they were alleg-edly unable to form their own opinions. P: Like the parrot’s repetitive speech, the gossips and mundanities of the female voice can be productive.
Of course, and art has always been a great outlet for the personal as political. P: The anecdotal is very revealing of
social relations and hierarchies.
Have you ever heard of Eliza Haywood’s 1746 political journal, The Parrot, with a Compendium of the Times by the authors of The Female Spectator?
P: Nope. NOPE! NOPE!
In the introduction, Haywood de-mands that the readers “allow her to be a Bird of Parts!”
P: What a quip! Kwip! Kwip! Kwip! Kwip!
I’m not sure what she means exactly, but the journal’s goal was to challenge misogynistic politics of 19th-century England through parody and satire. The journal’s title, The Parrot, is definitely meant to mock the
assumption that women are only capable of “parroting” the political opinions of their
husbands!
P: Even today, they call women “birds” in England... It’s a slang thing. Maybe kinda flighty too, or featherbrained!
Featherbrain? Sounds soft and cozy for a derogatory term.
On Writing
M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M:P: Cwack! Cwack! Yeah! But the same goes for “chicks.” Seems like there is a whole bird lexique...
For women, yeah.
P: Well, that’s interesting because this idea of a bird lexicon brings it all around, from Flaubert to Pope Francis, the porn star and the parrot, it’s all kind of the same discussion. And in a way, it’s all very political.
Of course! The talking parrot became a key figure in debates on conscious-ness in Western philosophy. Locke’s anecdote of a discussion with a Spanish talking parrot claiming to be a very good chick herder is hilarious!
P: COT-COT-CODET! That must be why Marcela Iacub has a parrot!
Oh yeah, she posed with it for the cover image of her essay “Bête et victime; et autres chroniques de Libération.” She likes her pig too!
P: Ha ha ha! Belle et Bête... my first im- pression of the novel was that it was sort of fluffy, but now I find it’s actually really interesting how she’s distin-guishing between the man and the pig as two different beings within one person – her lover – in the novel.
She loves the pig with its dirtiness, and all its badness, because there is something pure about the pig. Because there might be something human about the pig we all have within ourselves that civilization is trying to erase. I think Iacub is pointing out what society – feminist and patriarchal alike – does to the animal within us. It’s as if Freud had been reincar-nated as a female lawyer and philosopher! P: I agree; Iacub and Freud, same
combat!
She dreams of barbecuing her lover pig sometimes, even though she’s vegetarian! I’m sure Freud would have a lot to say about how Iacub reflects on herself as la protectrice des porcs...
P: Freud has to be le protecteur des perroquets then!
I think that la femme au perroquet who, like Marcela Iacub, embodies and experiences the things she wants to talk about, can stand up for herself.
P: Well, sounds to me like Iacub’s project is of the sort of “performance philosophy” in the way the female body is really put on the front line for art.
While reading Aliens & Anorexia, in which Chris Kraus actually coins “per- formance philosophy” to define Simone Weil’s practice, I remember thinking a lot
about Andrea Fraser’s work too, and how she basically sacrifices her body in Untitled (2003). P: The body as “an object in an artwork.”
Really? REEEEEEALLY?
Well, that’s the point right? Women shouldn’t only be defined by their body... Catherine Millet’s novel La vie sexuelle... certainly set a precedent in how it dis-cusses female sexuality in a way that’s de- tached from emotions as a philosophical reflection. What’s truly original about the book, I think, is how it is renewing the language that’s politicizing female sexual-ity as a conceptual art project.
P: WAAAAit a minute here, Catherine Millet is not an artist...
Yeah, I know, I only realized recently that her novel was in fact never con- sidered an artwork per se. I was in France when it came out so I immediately assumed it was an artist’s book since she’s quite in-fluential in the French art scene, as an art historian, of course, but also as the editor of Art Press magazine.
P: So how does that make her novel an artistic project then?
She conceived it as an artwork; it’s just rarely discussed as such. She was quite explicit about how, as an art histo-rian, she spent so much time looking at the world through the viewpoint of artists that she wound up going down that path herself.
P: Then what would be the difference between contemporary women’s writ-ing and contemporary women’s art writing? Is there a difference?
Why should there be? Okay, it’s not all the same... I guess, at this point, I personally just find it impossible to make a distinction between certain novels and artists’ books. I was really surprised though that works by Chris Kraus or Catherine Millet were not included in The Book Lovers, that recent exhibition about artists’ novels in New York. The expanded field of art lit-erature is slowly appearing to me, and to a lot of other people too.
P: A collective hallucination, I love that! Wouiit Wiouuuu! Is your vision of a coal- escence of feminine art and writing doing anything to the historical un-derstanding of the artist’s book then?
Kraus, Iacub and Millet’s subjective accounts of their own feminine expe-rience through fiction writing, which are all in their own way political, allow for the history of the artist’s book to be opened up to account for books written by women who aren’t necessarily considered artists by the canon.
P: Bam!! What is your genealogy of the artist’s book, then, if you’re going to give one? Like where do you begin?
The emergence of the artist’s book coincides with the advent of the novel, with projects like Eliza Haywood’s The Anti-Pamela: Feign’d Innocence Detected in England, and Madame de Lafayette’s La Princess de Clèves in France. In these novels, subjectivity is a political attitude that is adopted in direct opposition to the writings of their contemporaries, which promoted the “universal,” the “neutral” and “rational.” Or in other words, the white, heterosexual and masculine production of knowledge. P: So the book functions as an
ephemer-al performance, “an attitude becom-ing form,” to raise consciousness about femininity that is expressed differently, on an existential level?
9
On Writing
Locations
M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M:cmagazine 122
Summer 2014
In a way, yes, but the novels function as performance art. These writers take their experience, and process it through writing. Since the gender issues they’re tackling are somewhat complex and shape- shifting, visual artworks rarely do justice to their thinking around these ideas on their own, hence the need to take up writing. P: Who are “these writers” you’re talking
about exactly? Just do it, just give me some names quick! Pritt!!! Pritt!
Ha ha ha ha! Okay, well, let’s see, I have quite a fondness for Rosalba Carriera’s diaries. Also, researching the writings of Michèle Bernstein of Situationist International, especially her romans-à-clef, at the National Library of France was an experience in itself. I managed to “obtain” a copy of La nuit in its entirety with the help of an astute librarian, back when it was im- possible to find... Lucy R. Lippard’s novel I See/You Mean also makes it very clear to me that creative writing can be a conceptual art practice as well. Hmm, I came across Valérie Mréjen’s L’agrume by chance, and immedi-ately loved how writing was at the core of her practice! How Should A Person Be by Sheila Heti is also a novel that brings forth the intimate coalescence of art and writing in contemporary practices.
P: What about Frida Khalo’s parrots? In her work, the parrot is a nahual, a shapeshifting persona, used to conceal herself... What about all the women Surrealists who were not included in the canon of Surrealism, who did performances as well as writ-ing, but also photography and col-lages? They were working between all of these media. Are they included?
Yes, of course! Mina Loy, and the many avant-garde women. And of course, my favourite, poetess Valentine de Saint-Point, the Futurist who basically invented performance art, modern dance and con-ceptual art. And yet she is barely known, let alone considered an artist!
P: Who needs to be an artist anyways right! Cwark! Better to be a parrot than an artist! Cwark! Cwark!
It has to do with the tension between the way these artists and writers situ- ates themselves, and the way that they’ve been absorbed into certain groups or canons... It’s interesting because all these contem-porary women artists and authors don’t necessarily see any sort of link between each other.
P: If you want to talk about all these women together as an art movement, then that’s great! GREAAAAAT!!!!
The idea is to propose a different framework for women’s writing while expending the notion of institutional critique.
P: Your perspective on the affinities linking these women writers is a little different because it’s totally informed by your knowledge of art...
It’s so contextual, I know... Most people interested in Sheila Heti’s writings, for instance, don’t know anything about French women authors like Sophie Calle, Annie Ernaux, Catherine Millet.
P: Yeah, well Chris Kraus has to know... RIGHT!!!???
Indeed, it goes both ways; a lot of people I know who are interested in French autofiction works, well, they’ve never heard of Chris Kraus! Her writings are influential because they are under-stood as a starting point, when in fact, they are very much informed by French women’s writing and art. There is a defi-nite link between the Franco and Anglo scenes through Calle and Kraus, for sure, even with the linguistic divide... Kraus is Calle without the photographs, and that’s for the best.
P: Is Kraus’ work even translated into French?
I don’t know... Oh my god! We totally should work on that!
P: I like how you’re trying to find the locus of that thing called art! And who is allowed to say what is or isn’t
10
On Writing
art, and who decides who is or isn’t an artist?
It’s unusual but it seems like one of the last possibilities for art is within intimacy. Pauline Klein thinks too many of us want to make art, and that is detrimen-tally colonizing life in its entirety. But listen to this: “Il fallait selon elle, revenir à une pensée privée et jamais dévoilée. La vie intérieure, invis-ible, était le dernier rempart de Ia possibilité de l’art, mais pour que cette possibilité ait lieu, il fallait lui maintenir la tête sous l’eau, ne plus sortir de son intimité chaotique, il fallait se faire se succéder les mots et les choses dans les limites mouvementées de notre corps fermé, les préserver comme un secret.” (trans: "According to her, we have to go back to private thought and never divulge.The interior life - invisible - is the last defence for the possibility of art, but for this pos-sibility to happen, we must keep our heads under water, never come out of our chaotic intimacy, and make words and things follow one another within the turbulent boundaries of our closed bodies, preserving them like a secret.")
P: Art as a secret. That idea, it’s totally at the heart of your conception of women’s art writing.
Art is a secret by women without secrets...
On Writing
M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M: M:11
Primer
NADÈGE
GREBMEIER
FORGET
*
MARYSE
LARIVIÈRE
GUILDA,
ILONA,
ANDREA.
Montréal, le 17 août 2013, 22h34.
Le défi du siècle/une soudaine audace nous
sortant de notre quotidien et nous rapprochant
l’une de l’autre, telles de jeunes adolescentes.
Fébriles, plantées bien droites devant les portes
du plaisir, devant le 2-22:
Maryse
On fume une clope avant d’entrer?
(Elle tasse une mèche de cheveux et commence à
fouiller dans le fond de sa sacoche.)
Nadège
Je fume pas d’habitude, mais donne-moi s’en une
quand même!
(Je souris, regarde le portier qui piétine sur place
et balance mon foulard par dessus mon épaule.)
Maryse
Ha ha!
Nadège
Yé quelle heure au juste?
Maryse
Onze heure et demi.
(On avait l’impression qu’il était plus tard que ça,
on se sent soudainement vieilles.)
Nadège
C’est quand même tranquille pour un samedi
soir...
Maryse
C’est les vacances, je sais pas...
Nadège
Ouais mais quand même, on est en plein
centre-ville...
(Je m’avoue honteusement que j’aurais aimé
qu’une foule anonyme extatique nous remarque
entrer.)
Maryse
La Main, en bas de Sherbrooke, c’est vraiment
mort maintenant.
(Énervée, son bras pointe la direction d’une Main
passé.)
Nadège
C’est dû aux trois, quatre ans de travaux, de construction
ou whatever…
(Cette cigarette que je fume m’écoeure autant que
le changement.)
Maryse
Ici aussi, l’âme du quartier is fading out.
(Elle botche.)
Nadège
Pourtant ya tellement de cash qui est investie
pour le revitaliser...
(Je lui tends péniblement la moitié de clope qui
me reste.)
Maryse
L’érection du Quartier des spectacles est en train
d’aseptiser le Red Light...
(Cigarette vers bouche. Grande puff.)
Nadège
C’est pas super bon pour la faune artistique ça...
(Je regarde en direction de deux-trois français qui
viennent de s’arrêter devant le Cléopâtre pour se
demander sérieusement s’ils devraient y entrer.
Malheureusement, non.)
Maryse
But Cléo is still standing! Ils ont résisté
l’expropriation du cabaret en faisant valoir
l’importance majeure de la conservation du
patri-moine historique de la Main.
(Dit-elle fièrement.)
Nadège
Assez bright pour un strip club...
(Dis-je impressionnée.)
Maryse
C’est pas juste un bar de danseuses, c’est la reine
de la Main!
(Ses bras s’agitent soudainement au dessus de sa
tête.)
Nadège
I always appreciated that the lady on the Cleopatra
sign out front was voluptuous…
(Je me penche légèrement vers l’arrière pour
mieux observer l’enseigne.)
Maryse
She’s a beacon for true subversive, underground
culture. In comparison, its contemporary art
neighbours seem more and more conservative,
and fashioning themselves to fit in the neoliberal
agenda...
(Elle botche en formant des cercles rapides
comme s’il y avait quelque chose à éteindre
urgemment.)
Nadège
Bon, on y vas-tu?
(Sourire impatient.)
Maryse
Ok, ok, mais on monte au deuxième...
(Sourire satisfait.)
Nadège
La porte est ouverte, on est correct.
*
Maryse
Bonsoir Johnny!
Johnny Zoumboulakis
Good evening ladies!
Nadège
Tu le connais?
(Attendant une anecdote croustillante.)
Maryse
C’est le proprio, une connaissance de mon père.
Nadège
Oh, on s’assoit sur la banquette là dans le coin au
fond?
(Pointé de manière inspirée au travers d’une salle
quasiment vide.)
Maryse
Ouais, ça l’air plus confo. Je te suis...
(De près.)
Sandy la serveuse
Bonsoir mesdames, quelque chose à boire?
(D’une voix nasillarde, masculine et convaincue
que nous sommes un couple.)
Maryse
Deux gin-tonics s’il-vous-plait.
Nadège
As-tu vu ça? Regarde comme yé beau le miroir
au fond!
Maryse
Où ça?
Nadège
Juste à côté du stand de becs à deux piastres; un
ready-made juste pour moi!
(Je cligne de l’œil, me rapproche d’elle, une fesse
dans le vide, la main cherchant mon verre.)
Maryse
Ah ouin, c’est comme un espèce de Mike Kelly
biomorphique!
Nadège
Évidemment, on sait bien à quoi ça réfère vraiment...!
(Parce que je ne comprends pas le lien avec Mike
Kelly, je crée des liens entre la forme du miroir et
le corps dansant devant nous, une forme de larve
en robe à paillettes argentées.)
Maryse
Ça pourrait être cool de crasher l’exposition de
Jon by reperforming Joan Jonas’ Mirror Piece en
utilisant une réplique de ce miroir?
Nadège
T’es folle! Je vais aller prendre une photo...
(Click, click, click - flash! - une photo.)
Maryse
Moi aussi d’abord! Je vais l’envoyer à Jon, y vas
capoter, c’est vraiment en lien avec les miroirs de
son expo.
Nadège
Ben là, on n’est pas pour faire toute la recherche à
sa place quand même!
(On ne parle que de miroir, de conceptualisme et
de Jon depuis 3 jours.)
Maryse
Je lui ai juste promis que j’allais faire une
inter-view pour discuter de la gentrification culturelle
du quartier...
(Elle prend des notes. Avoir eu une cigarette en
main à éteindre, elle l’aurait surement fait avec
ardeur.)
Nadège
Ouais c’est sérieux votre affaire!
Tu m’as dit que c’était juste une blague entre vous
au départ...
(Regardant les photos du miroir tout en oubliant
finalement où est-ce qu’on est.)
Maryse
Mer-de, on a même pas interviewé un(e) seul(e)
artiste... et ça marchera certainement pas ce soir.
(Cul sec.)
Nadège
Ben oui voyons, on s’est interviewé nous-même!
(On rit.)
Miss Lovely
Ça va les girls? On s’amuse?
(Crié à partir du stage.)
Nadège & Maryse
Ouiiiiiiiii!!!
Une heure plus tard, dans l’auto:
Nadège
Je trouve ça quand même un peu tiré par les
cheveux de penser que les performeurs
drag-queen, fetish ou burlesque du Cléo soient des
Ar-tistes à part entière…
(Repensant au spectacle de piètre qualité qu’on
venait de voir.)
Maryse
C’est justement l’idée qu’ils ont eu de se
position-ner en tant qu’artiste qui est particulièrement
in-téressante.
Nadège
Guilda, artiste contemporain en performance?
(Je refuse d’y croire mais j’avoue que je jalousais
ses jambes.)
Maryse
Pourquoi pas! C’est une précurseur dans le genre...
Nadège
Du genre!
Il a des airs de ressemblances avec Orlan!!!
Maryse
Il faut une solidarité entre tous les artistes sinon
c’est tout le milieu qui écope sans le savoir.
(Dit-elle en grillant un feu rouge.)
Nadège
Quelle que soit leur “pratique”? Je trouve que
la performance est devenue un peu un terme
fourre-tout...
(J’ouvre la fenêtre, complètement découragée.)
Maryse
Pole dancing is totally at arm’s lenght avec la
per-formance...
Nadège
Well, les Jon’s eux se tiennent à un minimum de
distance, ça c’est sûr! Haha! Tu penses à Andrea
Fraser là, non?
Maryse
Et Ilona Staller,
La Ciciolina
... Il y a un risque à
marginaliser certaines pratiques artistiques...
Qui sait si on n’est pas les prochaines sur la liste?
(Stop violant.)
Nadège
Déjà qu’on m’a dit qu’il fallait que j’arrête de
penser mes performances avec mes émotions...
(Je prends une gomme à mâcher et lui en offre.)
Maryse
Sinon quoi?!?! Fuck, c’est n’importe quoi!!?!
Le corps, tout pour oublier le corps!
A brain in a jar, why is contemporary art trying
so hard to evacuate the body!
(Redémarre fougueusement.)
Nadège
«You have a way of mixing politics and passion...
Where does one begin and the other one leaves
off?»*
(Je lui prends la main et l’embrasse, en riant.)
Maryse
«They do not start nor end with me. It’s just our
destiny.»* Haha!!
(On crainque le son de la radio.)
FIN
* Cleopatra. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Twentieth Century Fox, 1963. Film.
Organism for Poetic Research
La Discrétion Des Expériences, Maryse
Larivière
80 81
CHORUS
We are a Community
Gathered in the middle
Of the Lake.
Right in a natural Park!
Right in the Lake!
We live on the Island.
We are the Islanders.
The City gets around us,
Sometimes without even,
Ever, realizing
We are here!
We are on Pressure Island!
We are Pressure Island!
This is Pressure Island!
FERRYMAN
Water imposes a distance
Yet through the harbour,
It carries the soundscape
Of the City.
Water connects us
Very close,
Very quickly,
To the City.
CHORUS
WACK, WACK,
BOOM, BOOM!
WACK, WACK,
BOOM, BOOM!
PSSSIIIIIIT! PSSSIIIIIIT!
WATER TAXI DRIVER
The Lake,
This feisty body of water
Only brings us,
Our Community,
Our Island,
Very much closer.
We are vulnerable
To the drastic change
In lifestyle and rhythm
Influenced by the Lake,
By the majestic presence
Of the water.
UNIVERSITY
STUDENT
The pressure is on us,
To agitate our political
Consciousness.
It comes from the need
To protect our Island, and
Our Community.
We take pride in caring
For Our Island,
The place where we live,
Not just for our own sake
But for the future.
PROFESSIONAL
We are a counter-cultural
Community, and
We are guided by strong
Ideological values.
We are no hippies.
We are the Islanders,
This is Pressure Island.
CHORUS
Do we deserve to stay?
Are our homes worth
Saving?
Community or Parkland?
We are here to stay!
The Island is ours!
Pressure Island, what an
Emotional issue!
ACTIVIST
We are here in solidarity
With the land.
We are here in solidarity
With the People.
We are here with People
In giving our eyes,
Our ears,
Our hands,
Our hearts,
And our souls to the land.
CHORUS
Welcome to
Pressure Island!
This is the Day of the
Bridge!
PARENT
We are bringing our battle
Out of court, and
Into the mediated arena!
Our battle ground is the
Island, and
What an event
We are preparing!
FIREMAN
Let’s not get isolated
Through siege mentality,
Let’s not get stuck
In survival mode.
NUDIST
Let’s take action before
What we anticipate
Actually happens!
Let’s take action so
What we anticipate
Never happens!
KIDS
We have gutsy banners,
And catchy buttons,
And wild costumes,
And string-band tunes,
And passionate speeches,
And tea and lemonade,
And other beverages with
Spikes in them.
ARTIST
Adversity is our strength!
Adversity is our ally!
Adversity makes us loud!
Adversity makes us bold!
Adversity brings out our
Creativity!
TRASH COLLECTORS
We are working with
Actors to rehearse
Our eviction.
We are working with
Activists to rehearse
Our pacific Resistance
Strategies.
We are rehearsing lessons
On effective obstruction
Techniques.
This is a pre-enactment of
Our eviction out
Of Pressure Island!
ARCHITECT
We know what is effective,
What is dangerous,
What is trouble to us,
What is demoralizing,
What is aggravating to
Them, and
What will be pushing
their buttons.
BARISTA
That’s why we’re taking
This very seriously,
That’s why we’re making
Known what we’re doing,
That’s why we’re showing
That we’re very organized!
PRESSURE
ISLAND
by
Maryse
Larivière
A pontoon, drifting away in the middle of a mountain lake.
Dusk and Summer.
Michel climbs back on the barge after a long swim, while Laura lies in the sun to read Vogue magazine.
LAURA
What do you mean? What are you talking about?
MICHEL
I am trying to tell you something that matters to me. I find it unfortunate that you don’t understand.
LAURA
What don’t I understand? MICHEL
Well, what I was telling you earlier, before we started this conversation. LAURA
(murmuring) I cannot find the page. What conversation, the story of what? MICHEL
It’s a story that never begins. I don’t know the end, nor how it goes about... LAURA
But the question is: are we still alive? MICHEL
What is the question? LAURA
Who is it? MICHEL
What is happening? LAURA
It’s really simple in fact. MICHEL
What is the second question?
LAURA
Ask me whatever you want. MICHEL
I don’t know. It’s too complex since I don’t know who I am. What am I? Who I am? The one who talks, the one who talks to you?
LAURA Who, me? MICHEL
To whom are you addressing this, to which part of me?
LAURA
The one that only exist here, and now. MICHEL
If only you knew who you were talking to...
LAURA Shred by shred... MICHEL
You must tell me to whom your ad-dressing this because I cannot situate myself. And come lie down next to me. LAURA
Come on! You very well know that you are the lover.
MICHEL The lover? LAURA
Yes, yes, it is written here: “The Lover.” MICHEL
Here... I am here, for your pleasure, for the pleasure you’ve never known be-cause you were forced to live an orderly life, to face your obligations. And me, I am here for your pleasure, to make you forget that life can be sad. I am your lover, I am the one to make you forget, to make you see how life can be something else.
LAURA
What does my mother say of all this? MICHEL
Your mother? She made you, so she knows you too well, but at the same time, she stops you from becoming yourself... Everything she tells you... LAURA
I need to listen to her or to detach myself from her?
MICHEL
You need to listen to her to better detach yourself from her. She belongs to another era. You need to find within yourself the way to escape her without completely contradicting everything she taught you, she gave you... LAURA
Give me some ham.
MICHEL
You want me to give you some ham? LAURA
Give me the beautiful brown ham please. Give it to me or you will be in trouble. Don’t make me say it again. MICHEL
What’s the beautiful brown ham, is it a sexual thing?
LAURA
Stop! Or I will brandish the stick of runes...
MICHEL
Ha ha ha! That’s quite special, but we are just about nowhere, so it won’t change anything.
LAURA
How do you think I will accept you as the master of my home and of my chil-dren if you pursue acting like this? MICHEL
I would have liked to be accepted in your home. Yes, where it’s warm, where we feel secure, but I can clearly see it’s not my place. Your home is made for you alone, and there is no place for me in it.
LAURA
I feel lonely. I can only be sighting after our little game. It’s raining outside. MICHEL
Do you think I should go close my windows?
LAURA
Oh no, it’s not raining a lot, only a few drops. Maybe it’s the beginning of something...
MICHEL
So what do we do now? Should we go now?
LAURA
Yes, let’s just improvise... MICHEL
Yes, let’s move! LAURA
We will stop everywhere we desire, it will be amusing.
MICHEL
The cabin, can I close it before we leave then?
LAURA Why? MICHEL
The cabin where you stayed, you no longer have anything to do there? LAURA
No, but why be preoccupied with that now; are you fearful?
MICHEL Yes I am afraid. LAURA
What are you afraid of? MICHEL
I am scared of getting lost, of loosing myself. I am afraid of my fantasy, I am afraid to abandon myself, to loose myself... LAURA Where? MICHEL In alterity. LAURA In authority? MICHEL
In alterity, in the other. LAURA
Find again your name, find your name please.
MICHEL
You decide of our roles. LAURA
It feels bizarre to try to be someone else.
MICHEL Am I you. LAURA
No, but you killed me with a blast of wind.
MICHEL At what time? LAURA
At midnight, when we should go swim again.
MICHEL How? How? LAURA
Just like last night, in the black lake which appears infinite, and us, com-pletely small and naked.
MICHEL
Did you ever fly in the endless night sky?
LAURA
In the sky? All the time, every night... MICHEL
Have you ever met some birds? LAURA
Birds? Hummingbirds... MICHEL
You ever talk to them? LAURA
Yes, I love hummingbirds, they are
