Bonnie Baxter
Jane, Laser Engraved Plate. 24 x 24 inches, 2016 | The Rat, Laser Engraved Plate. 24 x 24 inches, 2016
Bonnie Baxter
PRESENT | PAST | FUTURE
CURATOR – JONATHAN DEMERS
Jane’s Journey (2008)
The Tragic and Premature Death of Jane (2016)
RatKind (2018)
3 Months, 3 Series, 3 Interconnected Narratives
Vernissage
November 25, 2018, 2pm to 5pm
Exhibition
November 25, 2018 to January 25, 2019
In the context of the 40th anniversary of the Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides (MAC LAU), Bonnie Baxter, whose art practice has grown up along with the museum itself, will exhibit a comprehensive exhibition of three of her series from the past 10 years. Curator Jonathan Demers employs the anachronistic nature of the exhibition’s elements to play on memory, expectation and to expand preconceived notions of the retrospective.
Opening this November 25th at the MAC LAU, it will be the first time that Baxter’s two Jane series – Jane’s Journey and The Tragic and Premature Death of Jane – are shown together and in their entirety. At the same time, her new series, RatKind will infest the city of Saint-Jérome, appearing incrementally and finding its way into Montreal as well, beginning with a site specific installation in 15 rooms of the deserted insurance premises on 330 Rue Saint-Georges on Saint-Jérôme’s main street. Past, present and future come together in one multi-faceted exhibition exploring the source of our identity, the burden of our past, and the frightening challenges of our future. RatKind, a projection into an implausible future-topia asks us to overcome our fears, rational and irrational, to find it in ourselves to adapt, recognizing the value of all forms of intelligence, all ways of being, even if it means overcoming prejudices and phobias as deeply held as our loathing of Rats and instead, embracing all Kinds.
Musée d’art contemporain des Laurentides
101, place du Curé-Labelle,
Saint-Jérôme (Québec) J7Z 1X6
www.museelaurentides.ca
Telephone : 450.432.7171
communications@museelaurentides.ca
BAIN PARIS (Jane’s Journey series), Digital Print, 51 x 38.5 inches each
It began in the past, in a para-autobiographical journey, Bonnie Baxter travelled through her own geographical history in the guise of the archetype Jane, the blue eyed blond stereotype that had been her ally and her enemy throughout her career to create the series, Jane’s Journey in 2008.
MOTEL RAT (The Tragic and Premature Death of Jane series), 24 x 48 inches, Laser engraved plate, 2016
In 2011 Baxter had had enough, Jane was taking over her career, in a devious twist, she killed Jane off in classic Pulp Fiction style with an over the top narrative dripping with lust, betrayal, murder, miss/taken identity, and a touch of the supernatural. By 2016, 8 years after Jane’s Journey, she had created her second Jane series, The Tragic and Premature Death of Jane. Already, the rat had made an appearance, lurking in Jane’s subconscious, a nagging embodiment of the memories Jane needed to face before she could move on.
MOTEL (RatKind series), Digital Print, 40 x 60 inches, 2018
Now, just two years later, the Rat has risen to the surface and refuses to be ignored. The future is here. Who is this Rat? In RatKind the figure of the rat emerges as a dark mirror of our moral and social consciousness. It manifests in a dreamlike futuristic utopia reminiscent of Bosch’s Garden of Delights. RatKind is a new species resulting from the convergence of human and rat DNA, a cautionary tale of the consequences of keeping unpleasant or fearful things repressed: the things that keep humankind from confronting injustice, prejudice, and greed and correcting issues of poverty, inequality, global warming, and loss of community. The series has a gentle humour and an inclusive spirit. In trying to make sense of the world around her, Baxter asks the viewer to reimagine our survival in a world that recognizes and celebrates the interdependence of all forms of intelligence, animal or vegetable.text by Christine Unger