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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260613
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DTSTAMP:20260605T080851
CREATED:20260602T173540Z
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UID:10000271-1781308800-1786319999@www.msvuart.ca
SUMMARY:Allyson Mitchell: Brain Child
DESCRIPTION:[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” row_position_desktop=”default” row_position_tablet=”inherit” row_position_phone=”inherit” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” flex_gap_desktop=”10px” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text css=”” text_direction=”default”]Organized by MSVU Art Gallery \nAllyson Mitchell’s Brain Child assembles a collection of over one hundred ceramic figurines\, depicting little girls clad in old-fashioned bonnets\, long skirts\, and frilly pinafores. These figurines were particularly ubiquitous in the 1970s and 1980s\, with Holly Hobbie\, Strawberry Shortcake\, the doe-eyed Precious Moments kids\, and others modeled a particularly retrograde version of feminine presentation and behavior\, one where little girls are expected to be sweet\, and kind\, ever-cheerful\, tidy\, quiet and demure\, and above all\, cute as buttons. \nWithin Mitchell’s installation\, these figurines are recast as pint-sized femme-savants\, whose oversized bonnets protect their big\, beautiful brains. They are queued up\, in two long\, curling lines before a giant brain\, crafted out of repurposed pink afghans\, that hovers high above them. Although this ritual gathering suggests a collective\, perhaps cult-like devotion to intellectual pursuits\, Mitchell has given the figurines subversive makeovers that emphasize their individuality and distinctiveness. Some have been reglazed in ultra-bright fluorescent hues\, others in a 1970s palette of mossy\, murky shades of green and brown\, rich oranges\, reds\, and golds. Some wear moody all-black goth while others are awash in highly saturated colours and clashing patterns that cover not only their dresses and bonnets\, but also their faces\, hands\, and hair. Together\, they attest to the expansive and subversive potential of femme identity\, presentation\, and intellect. \nImage: Allyson Mitchell\, Brain Child\, 2008\, mixed media installation. Photo courtesy of Union Gallery and the artist.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” row_position_desktop=”default” row_position_tablet=”inherit” row_position_phone=”inherit” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” flex_gap_desktop=”10px” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text css=”” text_direction=”default”]About the Artist \nAllyson Mitchell’s individual and collaborative practice spans sculpture\, performance\, installation\, film\, and comics engaging feminist and queer politics through humour\, excess\, and critique. Her work has generated projects such as the fat activist collective Pretty Porky and Pissed Off\, a coven of lesbian feminist Sasquatch monsters\, a room-sized Vagina Dentata\, and Killjoy’s Kastle: A Lesbian Feminist Haunted House\, presented internationally with collaborator Deirdre Logue. Together\, Mitchell and Logue run FAR Feminist Artist Residency in rural Ontario. Mitchell is a Professor in Gender\, Sexuality\, and Women’s Studies at York University and publishes graphic memoir comics you can find on Substack @ I May Never Answer Your Email and This Is Why.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” row_position_desktop=”default” row_position_tablet=”inherit” row_position_phone=”inherit” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” flex_gap_desktop=”10px” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_backdrop_filter=”none” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” column_position=”default” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” animation_type=”default” bg_image_animation=”none” border_type=”simple” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text css=”” text_direction=”default”]Artist Talk and Curated Screening: Private Caves\, Blanket Forts and Dream Scores \nSaturday\, June 13\, 1:00-3:00 pm\nThe Centre for Art Tapes\, 2238 Maitland Street\, Halifax\, NS\nPresented in partnership with The Centre for Art Tapes \nThis artist talk and screening looks at how artists use installation/sculpture\, drawing\, music\, and animation to build strange worlds\, emotional landscapes\, and intimate visual languages. Featuring short films and videos\, the program wanders through dreamscapes\, private caves\, hand-drawn rhythms\, and animated forms of graphic narration and tale spinning that move between feeling\, memory\, and imagination. \nCurated by Allyson Mitchell\, Private Caves\, Blanket Forts and Dream Scores features video by Daniel Barrow\, Karma Clarke-Davis\,  Theo Cuthand\, Andrea Dorfman\, Jesi Jordan\, Annapurna Kumar\, Christine Latham\, Anita Lebeau\, Amy Lockhart\, James MacSwain\, Allyson Mitchell\, Amanda Strong\, Leslie Supnet\, and Theoretical Puppets. \nLight refreshments will be served\, and all are welcome to attend.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
URL:https://www.msvuart.ca/exhibition/allyson-mitchell-brain-child/
CATEGORIES:Feminisms,Gender & Sexuality,Sculpture & Installation,Textiles
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.msvuart.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Allyson-Mitchell-Resized.jpg
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