Artwork

The Suit

Performance at Galerie B-312, Montreal
November 14, 2009, approximately one hour

part of Animals and Children project curated by Rachel Echenberg

This piece centred around a child’s wool suit – a garment from another era, when children were dressed up as miniature adults. I was attracted to its simultaneous absence/presence; even when uninhabited it was full of life, and seemed to evoke stories. Various actions were improvised with the suit, in a sense approaching it as a puppet. Then I began naming all of the elements of the piece into the categories animal, vegetable, mineral, which led to meticulously tearing apart the suit. The piece moved between a range of emotions, from the humour, playfulness of a child’s games, to the obsessive need to order, to the violence of eventually destroying the suit.

Materials: wool suit, potatoes, apple, wool, jar, cabinet, cinnamon, tea, teacups, child’s drawing

Photographs: John Sellakaers