September 18th – October 31, 2020
Billboard at 424-20th Street West, Saskatoon, SK
Laura Gildner is an intermedia artist whose research examines the boundaries of performativity and how we negotiate our performative selves in relation to those around us. The majority of her practice is focused on the creation of live and often participatory event-based productions that are later translated into video installations, photographs, and archives of the makeshift communities that develop as a result of their creation.
Tell Me What You Know I Want To Hear originated from one such happening, and depicts a pile of bodies cloaked in sequinned blankets, uniformly costumed, and partially concealed. Borrowing from the aesthetic pageantry of advertising yet devoid of any Photoshopped corrective measure, the legs at first appear almost mannequin-esque until further observation reveals imperfect signifiers of humanity. Confronting the absurdity of performance while meditating on the poetics of desire, Tell Me attempts to investigate how social choreography might inform the reality of our shared experience.
Artist Bio:
Laura Gildner lives and works on the unceded lands of the Lekwungen peoples (Victoria, BC). Most recently Gildner has exhibited at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Polygon, and at VIVO where her work Informer was a selected exhibition for this year’s Capture Photography Festival. Gildner is a graduate of the University of Victoria and is the 2020 recipient of the Lind Prize in Photography, Film, and Video Art.