Hairdresser’s Hymn to Venus: a performance project
February 27th - March 12th, 2019Hairdresser’s Hymn to Venus: a performance project will bring esteemed performance artist Michelle Lacombe to Dawson, introducing her work, and the cutting-edge practice of performance art, to our students and the Dawson community.
This project will particularly interest students in Fine arts and ALC, in addition to gender and feminist studies, Peace studies, Theatre, etc.
Lacombe’s work at Dawson will involve:
1. An artist talk open to the Dawson community, serving as an introduction to her practice, particularly for second year Visual Arts students required to attend. It will introduce themes of art history and gender disparity, feminism, and power relationships in Lacombe’s past work.
2. An intervention in the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery which will be both an exhibition and live art performance, with public participatory elements.
3. Innovative workshops specifically designed by Lacombe to complement Sculpture 4 Visual Arts course pedagogy.
Project Update
Michelle Lacombe's artistic performances project Hairdresser’s Hymn to Venus at the Warren G. Flowers Art Gallery was a true example of art in social spaces. The artist’s performance, was attended by students from Visual Arts and ALC. The two private workshops with Michelle took place in the gallery along with many other exhibitions in and around the public spaces of Dawson College. All the components of this project, artist talks, workshops and live exhibitions, worked directly with students in real-world artistic pedagogy. Students who experienced all or some of these components, expressed openly how they valued the interactions with the artist. This included students less familiar with contemporary art, like the math students who collaborated with Michelle Lacombe and students who came into the gallery for the first time because of the live presence and transformation that was taking place. Many students from different disciplines returned throughout the project to witness the work or to discuss with the artist.
