Chop Chop, Lollipop

May 30 – June 25, 2021

Maya Ben David, Amanda Boulos, Jessica Eisner, Shannon Garden-Smith, Jessica Jang, Renée Lear, Amy Lockhart, Nadine Maher, Michael McGlennon, Kaitlynn McQueston, Jasmine Reimer, Claudia Rick, Henry Sawtell, Scott Sawtell, Shannon Scanlan, Carolyn Slogar

Curated by Nadine Maher, Claudia Rick, and Amanda Boulos

Video documentation by Miles Rufelds can be seen here.

Chop Chop, Lollipop employs sixteen artists’ inherited and personal monsters and myths to explore the strange. Fuelled by the isolation of long-term lockdowns and fear of the virus, the artists foreground our bodies and minds as vulnerable vessels containing worlds of unusual creative powers. These sixteen artists bring to the space gross, scary, weird, ugly, shifting, even unfinished work, boldly voicing their preference for the unwanted and the unfamiliar. The exhibition invites these strange worlds and musings to coexist and infiltrate the viewer’s imagination. The artists come to us with baskets full of craft-able materials, costumes, and funky themes to encourage the visitor to channel their own innermost manifestations, effectively turning the gallery into a playground of activities and fantastical encounters. We are hanging the work without a ruler but with a lot of hammers.

We will be hosting workshops for all ages, art talks about Pokémon, and scary story readings, and giving out colouring sheets. Want to participate? Look hard and find the 7 lollipops hidden in the gallery space, and you will be rewarded with your own lollipop to take home.

+ 

A JESSICA EISNER SOUND PIECE HERE!

_{Photo documentation courtesy of Alison Postma}