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Mireille Perron

I once heard on CBC Radio that science is a process of disproving the infallibility of a theory. While this notion obviously lies toward the science end of the art-science spectrum, it can guide us toward alternative means of understanding. One such approach is pataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions. The term, coined by Alfred Jarry at the turn of the 20th century, is the locus of renewed experimentation for the Calgary artist Mireille Perron in her exhibition “The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics.”

Perron’s exhibit comprised five mobile architectures, such as trolleys and a hot-air balloon, each carrying equipment and instructions on how to render and redefine the body. The guidelines were aimed, however, not at the corporeal body, but rather at corporate bodies. Referencing the tendency of corporations to house research institutes and think tanks to ideologically underpin or promote their activities, Perron addresses the Alberta College of Art and Design’s recently founded Institute for the Creative Process (ICP). In an exercise that is part antidote and part contagion, this “body” is redefined via Perron’s mobile emergency units, which include the Institute for Confounding Pretension, the Institute for Corporate Pudding and the Institute for Cosmic Procrastination.

A local review of the show suggested the work was a “scathing critique,” but Perron does not take this view. Instead, perhaps in reference to her Institute for Contagious Platitudes, she suggests that “the work is about over-identification and exaggeration.” Humour is certainly in play in Perron’s ICPs, yet the superbly crafted modules and cogent accompanying texts impart a seriousness and credibility to the project.

Understanding how feminism may function within this laboratory is not as straightforward as layering an institutional critique upon an analysis of patriarchy. Perron states that her feminist approach is about being “more inclusive.” This reminds me of Germaine Greer’s words at the start of Sinead O’Connor’s album Universal Mother: “the opposite to patriarchy is not matriarchy but fraternity.” Certainly the exhibition implies that a democratizing of corporate power leads to greater inclusiveness, but it would be sad to limit this adage’s applicability to the imaginary realm of pataphysics.

In pointing out that it is important to share the pie, rather than have your cake and eat it, “The Laboratory of Feminist Pataphysics” proves the fallibility of hegemony. Or is that just Corporate Pudding?

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