Those of us whom was raised in the united states into the 1960s and 70s lacked art, Bible tales, and history as universal sources. The tome that shaped our values most tangibly ended up being the emporium catalogue, a wish guide of that which we might have and whom we’re able to be when it was got by us. Gender had been demonstrably defined, battle had been single, and course had been center. In this performance we utilize the tableau type to enact a typical page through the Eaton’s catalogue, the most-read guide of your Canadian youth. We now have paired women’s formals (a appearance we now have had trouble effectively fitting into) with restroom plumbing system to invoke the bounty that is endless cleanliness and hope that the catalogue implied. Three females stay in vacant stillness, water streaming through the spouts at their breasts.

Duration: The 15 moment performance is duplicated twice an hour or so

First performed: March 1998, Hallwalls Centre for modern Art, Buffalo, nyc. Later done at Counterposes, Montreal, curated by Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick.

Astroart area Corps

Commanders Dempsey and Millan are getting ready to enter space that is deep to build up revisionist stellar cartography and explore the resistant nature of anti-matter.

First performed: 2014, La Nuit Blanche, Calgary, Alberta september

Photos by Lindsey Bond

Big Wig

The revolting and also the revolutionary, the reviled as well as the revered are united by locks in this right time travelling sing-along. Through the wigged women of Ancient Rome towards the hirsute levels of seventeenth century France to those extremely hairy 1960s: the world’s many queen that is infamous the real history of radical tresses while thinking democracy.

“we want my personal revolution. I would like to cut back package tops, and purchase one in the mail. I’d like anachronism and misconception, additionally the myth that is anachronistic things gets better. I wish to be pretty and only a little tragic, not too tragic because that would make me personally dead. “

Duration: 35 min.

First done: June 2017 Queer City Cinema Camp, Trash, Filth event in Regina, Saskatchewan, curated by Gary Varro

Revised: November 2017 Isolated Landscapes in Winnipeg, Manitoba, curated by Kathy Rae Huffman

Photos By Karen Asher and Anita Lubosch

The Dress Series

The Dress Series (1989-1996), a team of performances that explore the gown since the female ceremonial costume and icon of femininity. During these pieces, fabric is changed by not likely materials, producing juxtaposition, brand brand new meanings and upending expectations. All costumes fabricated by Dempsey and Millan.

In Arborite Housedress, the pro/antagonist defends herself against racial and financial huge difference by clothes by herself within the domestic architecture regarding the times: the house/dress is her shimmering, clean fortress and her prison. For the piece she reveals her fears (such as for instance gravity, or driving a car that “parts of my dangerously sagging self might end in bad neighborhoods”) and her dreams (border city romances, getting straight straight straight straight down with dust, and also the removal of her household, herself more fully to being a homemaker) so she will have time to devote. The sculpture/costume that is wearable been exhibited at numerous free galleries and it has been bought because of The Winnipeg memorial as an element of their permanent collection.

“Have you ever pointed out that in the event that you clean a floor each morning, by nightfall it appears simply the just like just before began? Them again that you can do all of the dishes, and in a matter of hours someone has gone and dirtied? That kiddies are small magnets that are grime picking right up all types of stubborn spots and bringing them house once again? Well, I Am thinking. If i really could dispose of my loved ones, it might effortlessly cut could work load by 60%. ”

The Dress: lumber, laminate, chrome kitchen area hardware, screws, cloth, Velcro.

Duration: 25 moments

First performed: 1994, Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta february

Photos by Sheila Spence

In Glass Madonna the world-weary mom of Jesus proffers wry advice and sage warnings from behind her stained cup gown. Fashioned just like a two-dimensional carnival cutout with holes on her arms and mind, the gown is just a colourful and explicit rendering of this Virgin Mary’s familiar apparel, with an unique peek-a-boo panel of clear cup to show the main associated with the Madonna’s fame: her 2000 hymen that is year-old. Inside her never-the-same-twice visitations, Mary reviews on love, solution, plus the guys in her life.

“When he comes for your requirements on a night that is dream-filled sends their angels to honk their horn at your door, don’t be home. ”

The Dress: stained cup, leading, patina, oak, stain, equipment

Duration: 20 mins

First performed: February 1994, Walter Phillips Gallery, The Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta (developed from early in the day performance piece The Plaster Virgin, 1992)

Picture The Banff Centre

In Object/Subject of Desire t he main visual element in this performance is a big ball dress, made of crisp white paper, similar to a debutante dress. Stiff and translucent, delicate yet unyielding, the dress rustles noisily as Dempsey moves and talks.

The many complexities of desire are discussed, including the many ways desire can be negated within this costume. The purity and purity associated with the gown, the available expression of “wanting”, and also the sweetness of distribution, together create a presumption that the item of love talked about may be the conventional heterosexual partner. Nevertheless, these social presumptions are confronted throughout the final portion of the piece, as she finally, clearly, reveals the carnality of her desire to have an other woman.

“i would like you, to desire me personally. I’d like you to definitely even want me though I do not really want you. I do not would like you at all, but i would like everybody else to. I would like everybody else to would like you, but I do not wish you to definitely wish other people but me personally. All i would like can be your want. ”

The Dress: vellum, packing tape, Velcro

Duration: five full minutes

First performed: Red Deer university, Alberta, December 1988 (earlier variation performed in 1987 before Dempsey started collaboration with Millan)

Picture by Lorri Millan

The performer wears an iconic wedding gown, the classic raiment of femininity, virginity and promise in Plastic Bride. Nevertheless, the gown’s meant meaning is changed by its construction, from veil to teach, of clear mature cam porn plastic. The product encases the bride suggesting more references that are clinical human anatomy bags and clinical specimens, or commodities bagged and exhibited for sale. Disturbing, dream-like and funny, love and fashion, desire and denial are done inside the gown’s folds that are unforgiving.

“You have actually gone shopping with a buddy, your sis as well as your mother that is own been told, ‘It’s ideal. It is you. It is a knockout, ’ only to discover later on that it is a funeral, maybe maybe maybe maybe not a marriage. It is July, perhaps maybe perhaps not December. You’re a nurse, perhaps maybe not an aviator. ”

The Dress: clear plastic, fishing line, buttons

Duration: 20 mins