11 February–13 March, 2004
Opening Wednesday, 11 February, 7–9pm
Catriona Jeffries Gallery is pleased to commence the spring 2004 exhibition season with the first installment in a series of exhibitions: Artists Curating Artists. This four-part project plays upon the current international discussion of the defining role of the curator. Large international exhibitions such as Documenta and the Venice Biennial, to name but two of such large-scale curatorial interventions, have played a leading role in the increasingly elevated position of the curator. In some cases the art of curating becomes as important as the art itself. A global interest and engagement in the (un)defining of a curator's role is critical in order to evaluate the ever-changing definition of an exhibition.
The inaugural show of Artists Curating Artists is curated by artist Myfanwy MacLeod. Well aware of the discourse regarding the role of the curator, and the unstated taboos associated with artists curating artists, MacLeod has chosen to curate a solo exhibition of a young artist working in Vancouver, Kyla Mallett. Future fellow alumni to MacLeod, Mallett is currently in her final term of the masters program in the Fine Arts Department at the University of British Columbia. Since 2000 her practice has explored issues of teen youth identity through interview/statistic research, installation, photographic and video works. In her exhibition at Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Mallett will show a series of large format photo works that document found female high school student notes. This work examines the nonphysical, indirect and covert behaviours of teenage girls through emotionally vague, spiritually bored and aesthetically specific written correspondence. These superbly photographed notes, through their minimal means of communication and elusive nature, evoke a striking portrait of female youth within contemporary society.
CJ Press: Myfanwy MacLeod, Just Kidding
Just Kidding
"I just killed my best friend!" gasps Veronica.
"And your worst enemy," declares JD.
"Same difference," she moans.
It comes as no surprise that Heathers is one of Kyla Mallett's favorite films. A cinematic touchstone for a whole generation of young women, Heathers acts out disturbing yet familiar behaviors. Like Heathers, Mallett's new photographs introduce us to the clandestine politics of popular girl cliques. Rescuing from anonymity high school students' notes, Mallett fashions portraits of teenage girls through large-scale photographs of this written correspondence. The photographs illustrate the girls' attempts to communicate with each other. Mallett raises an important issue about authorship with her new work. How can girls learn to develop a voice when "silence is so deeply woven into the fabric of their experience" ? Developing further conceptual aspects of her last work Bully (2003), Mallett here brings to our attention the potential for suffering inflicted upon girls by their so-called friends.
Formally, Mallett's photographs resemble conceptual art practices of the 1960's. Mallett refers to the 'dry' forms and logical processes of conceptual art to capture the illogical transactions and emotional elusiveness of the teenage girl's note. The impact of the notes hinges on the girls' longing for, but impossibility of communicating with each other. The painstaking use of color of Your pal Alicia (2004), Hello!!! (2004), and See Ya! (2004), for instance, is completely at odds with their contents. Your pal Alicia (2004) is an elaborate note with multi-colored text spiraling towards a flowered center. Trimmed with hearts and flowers, and executed with bravura and flourishes, the girls hide their negative emotions by covering them with outward displays of prettiness. These notes articulate the girls' apathy, discontent, and indifference towards authority and the institution of learning. It is remarkable that in spite of the feminist revolution that took place over 30 years ago, young women today still feel society is largely indifferent to their needs. No wonder the intricately folded and ominously addressed note, You know who you are (2004) unfurls to read the familiar refrain: "hi, I'm totally bored right now'.
What binds this series together, apart from the girls' attempts to assert themselves through passive-aggressive acts of defiance in the forum of the classroom, is how much a teenage girl is the product of an ongoing dialogue with their peers. What resonates for the viewer is just how oblique, circuitous and fearful these exchanges are. "I hate writing these notes", states the anonymous author of You know who are (2004), "because I can never say anything exciting cause it may get around or something". Mallett's photographs uncover the kind of friendship that develops under circumstances when speaking directly, honestly, and openly is not an option.
"Technically I guess this makes you my best friend", the author of Oh-where do I start (2004) professes. Why, one must ask, does the author qualify their friendship in this way? Further, why is she desperate to convince herself of their relationship, in spite of the fact that they have been driving each other 'crazy' and engaging in shouting matches? Here the author protests too much, stating that her friend is undisputedly 'the raddest person I've ever met', someone from whom she does not have to hide her feelings. Nevertheless she cautions her friend, "And don't expect me to shut up about the bad driving comments because 1) it's my nature and 2) you shouldn't be on the road." By attributing this negative behavior towards her friend to her essential 'nature,' the two correspondents are hopelessly deadlocked; the ultimate survival of the supposed friendship has become contingent upon submission to emotional and psychological abuses.
Such correspondence between teenage girls frustrates our expectations for direct communication, so we must be prepared to read between lines. If we do, we will see how cruelty regularly unfolds under a cover of intimacy. Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out: the hidden culture of aggression in girls looks at the 'alternate' or unconventional aggressions that girls resort to when bullying. She observes how, "The word bully evokes the image of an enemy, not an intimate, and yet it is often the closest girlfriends who are caught in protracted episodes of emotional abuse." Simmons maps out a host of nonphysical, indirect and covert behaviors used by girls. Nonverbal gesturing, ganging up, behind-the-back talking, rumor spreading, exiling of cliques, the silent treatment, and note passing are some of the alternatives girls resort to in order to express their anger, jealousy and competitive desires.
Bye (2003) for example, occupies a strange place between real life murder schemes and the cinematic inventions of films like Heathers. In this note, the author goes from hoping her friend's grandparents will have "simotanious (sic) strokes" to detailing her fantasies for killing Jesse's grandparents so that she and her friends may take possession of their house and party. "Lets get so drunk & kill them...Or all three of us can try & rape her grandpa in the hottub, he'll have a heart attack & we'll accidentally burry (sic) grandma too - 1 dead - 1 still alive - It'll be fun". The author even suggests the potential benefits; they will lose weight by digging their graves. These scenarios although disturbing to read are critical to an understanding of the female psyche. Girls are not made of sugar and spice, and everything nice, but are in fact capable of bad thoughts, worse behaviors, and potentially heinous crimes. The notes are so horrifying they undercut any utopian visions of a girls-only society. Mallett's portraits refuse to idealize female relationship or imply girls' lives are idyllic or free of impulses toward competition, desire, and even murder.
"I don't know what's going on with DUSTIN…Adam just said that he called me a hoar" (sic). Think about qualities of the ideal or perfect girl and then picture the girl no one wants to be - the anti-girl. The anti-girl is the polar opposite of the 'nice' girl; she doesn't blend in, or get along, and she might even be a 'hoar'.
Photographers often have the difficult task of demonstrating the separation between themselves and the subject of their image. Mallett uses this problem to her advantage as a way to politicize her work. Unlike photo-conceptual activities of the '60's, Mallett makes the formerly repressed element of biography the subject of her work. Rather than engaging with the discourses of the artistic avant-garde, Mallett uses Simmons' sociological study as her point of departure, using Simmons' scholarship to help women arrive at an undiminished understanding of themselves. Mallett's photographs are examples of the complex norms, conventions, and rules young women navigate in their relationships with each other and the world at large. Unlike conventional portraits that focus on outward physical appearance, Mallett uses the girls' words to paint portraits of them, even if these portraits are less than flattering. Mallett's emphasis on their incriminating statements give evidence to what can happen when the desire to be 'nice' and to "fit in," runs counter to real emotions. Without falling back on faux naïveté or similar tropes, Mallett's portraits reveal the ways young women try to empower themselves. If we listen closely we can hear, beneath impersonal-sounding language and the banal imagery of conceptual art, a voice seething with boredom and rage.
"Hi, I'm sorry. Technically, I did not kill Heather Chandler, but hey, who am I trying to kid right? I just want my high school to be a nice place. Amen. Did that sound bitchy?"
Myfanwy MacLeod
2004
