Puppies Puppies (Jade Kuriki Olivo), “Portrait (My Blood),” 2019
the artist’s blood, blood donation bag, IV stand and refrigerator and “Blood drop stress balls (for Lutz Bacher),” 2019, scattered blood-drop stress balls, detail of installation “Body Fluid (Blood)” at the Remai Modern, Saskatoon (courtesy of the artist and Galerie Barbara Weiss, Berlin; photo by Blaine Campbell)

Puppies Puppies

Visitors can get tested for HIV at a show by a Los Angeles artist who puts a happy face on blood in the era of AIDS.

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Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, exhibitions and performance art involving human blood have tended to dive into the dark side. Think of Los Angeles artist Ron Athey, who used to travel North America wounding himself in the head and then sharing the blood in frightening ways. Toronto’s Istvan Kantor used to tag expensive paintings in major galleries with his own blood to make a political statement that usually went over everyone’s head.

And now for something completely different, there is Puppies Puppies, the adopted name of Jade Kuriki Olivo, a Los Angeles artist, with her first North American solo museum show at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon. Body Fluid (Blood) puts a happy face on blood, the substance the artist believes unites us all.

The exhibition is contained within one large room. It’s a tranquil setting, with no explicit political statements or threatening narratives.

First, you notice scores of red, baseball-sized squeeze balls, shaped like enlarged drops of blood, scattered across the floor. You can’t walk without bumping into them. “Kids love them,” says curator Rose Bouthillier. “You can pick them up.” Some people even toss them like snowballs.

Who would think a blood-themed exhibition in the age of AIDS could be family friendly?

A separate box-like temporary room in the gallery is open at certain hours for people to be tested for HIV. The aim is to remove the stigma that comes with HIV testing by judgmental staff, even in some medical environments. A quickie pinprick method at the Remai gives results in two minutes. For more certainty, samples can also be sent to a lab.

At the other end of the room, as if standing guard over the scene, is a tall, slim refrigerator – the kind cafeterias use for cold pop and other beverages. In this case, the see-through fridge contains a bag of the artist’s blood. Puppies is saying “hello.”

Tasteful found photos of medical interventions using blood adorn the walls. A flattened cardboard box used for transporting blood has been mounted and framed, like a precious work of art.

On Saturdays, a bus comes to the Remai to transport blood donors to a Canadian Blood Services outlet.

As a child, Puppies Puppies saw both of her parents donate blood. She wanted to do the same when she got older, but has been unable to in the United States because of national restrictions against donations from the queer community. Puppies is a trans woman. Canada also has restrictions against donations by men who have sex with men.

Through the Remai exhibition, the artist wants to encourage blood donations, while also promoting discussion around criteria and risk factors. The exhibition, and the issues it raises, is timely for Saskatchewan, which has double the national average for HIV infections. Injection drug use is a main driver of the illness in the province, according to medical officials.

“With the high prevalence of HIV in Saskatchewan, it is extremely important that we recognize the necessity of accessible HIV testing,” says Heather Hale, executive director at Saskatoon Sexual Health, which offers education, advocacy and clinical services. 

“HIV looks different now. It affects people from a wide range of backgrounds, and the only way for an individual to know for certain if they have HIV is to get tested. Through this partnership with Remai Modern we are able to increase the visibility and the practice of routine HIV testing in the community.” 

So, is Body Fluid (Blood) an art installation or a public service? Or maybe both? Is it art simply because it is in an art gallery? Would it still be art if the elements of the exhibition were in a shopping mall or university hall? Such questions are not new to the art world.

Puppies’ approach echoes Marcel Duchamp’s ready-mades. “I think of art as this beautiful realm where anything can happen,” Puppies said in an interview last January with Interview Magazine, a publication founded in 1969 by Andy Warhol. “That might sound like a simple idea, but I really think it can encompass absolutely anything.”

And, sometimes, art can even help save a life. ■ 

Puppies Puppies: Body Fluid (Blood) is on view at the Remai Modern in Saskatoon from Sept. 21 to Nov. 17, 2019.

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