CYNTHIA GIRARD: "Unicorns and Dictators," Esker Foundation, Calgary, May 31 to September 7, 2014

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Photo: Guy L’Heureux.

"Le gendarme/The Policeman"

Cynthia Girard, "Le gendarme/The Policeman," 2014, acrylic on linen, 6' x 5'.

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Photo: Guy L’Heureux.

"La dictature du people/People’s Dictatorship"

Cynthia Girard, "La dictature du people/People’s Dictatorship," 2013, textile banner, 39" x 55".

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Photo: Guy L’Heureux.

"Matraque I"

Cynthia Girard, "Matraque I," 2013, acrylic on ceramic, 17" x 3" x 3".

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CYNTHIA GIRARD: Unicorns and Dictators

Esker Foundation, Calgary

May 31 to September 7, 2014

By Lissa Robinson

Inside a maze of white scaffolding, artist Cynthia Girard displays her collection of recent paintings, banners, sculptures and other objects at the Esker Foundation in Calgary. At first glance, the exhibition, Unicorns and Dictators, is a sugar-coated kaleidoscope of animals, birds, insects, clouds and rainbow patterns.

The show builds on A mes amies les licornes (To My Friends the Unicorns), an exhibition Girard developed for Montreal gallery Parisian Laundry in 2013. This expanded version, curated by Naomi Potter, includes new works by Girard and cameos by fellow Quebec artists David Altmejd, Julie Doucet and Noémi McComber as well as German artist Henry Kleine and Groupe d’action en cinéma Épopée, a Montreal film collective. There is a lot of work – possibly too much. While the exposition (or assemblage) transforms the gallery into an enchanted land of political discourse, some of the satire and visual intricacies get lost in the labyrinth of contrasting works.

Rather than using plinths or gallery walls, Girard opted to display art on (or in) makeshift scaffolding that references street theatre and political banners, as does her pageant of absurd, powerful and hopeful words. While the scaffolding allows for a wandering interpretation, the overcrowding also makes a more discerning view of the work somewhat challenging. The most meaningful encounters are in areas where open installations invite a deeper view into the provocative and dreamy folds of Girard’s intriguing colour, motifs and patterns. Nevertheless, the exhibition exudes whimsy while engaging the vernacular of political rallies and street protests – a theatre of the absurd where Girard openly disrupts common motifs and hierarchies.  

In Girard’s textile banner, La dictature du peuple (People’s Dictatorship), viewers are confronted with a striking play of words and images sewn together from bits of softly patterned fabric. Vertical stripes suggest a prison cell, while ominous black clubs arouse disturbing thoughts of silencing the masses with threats of police violence. The oppressive club also appears in other pieces as protruding noses, double-ended penises or spiked clubs. Other repeating motifs include googly-eyed clouds, swirling horns, decorative fences, winged penises, swarming butterflies and wise owls.

Girard’s art practice alludes to quotidian craft while it frolics cunningly within the realm of folklore, mythology and the magical. She juxtaposes politics with whimsical imagery to produce her distorted narratives. She challenges hierarchies, both political and painterly, while drawing on vernacular culture and the applied arts. Her influences derive from various movements such as abstract art, Dadaism, cartoons, Op Art, feminist crafts, decorative arts, children’s illustrations, street and burlesque theatre, and surrealism. Ultimately, Girard’s work invites viewers to participate in a theatrical experiment that is both eloquent and confounding.