+15 WINDOW EXHIBITION
JUNE – JULY, 2004
RECEPTION: THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 2004 AT 8 PM

LOCATION – CALGARY CENTRE FOR PERFORMING ARTS
225, 8th Avenue S.E, CALGARY, ALBERTA

 

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

Two single girls desperately seek love… Young, affectionate, and willing to please, these cultural sweethearts are looking for attention, and they don’t want to share. The perfect set of porno twins have decided to stage the definitive competition: Blonde versus Asian. After all, who doesn’t want a Blonde and an Asian together. “But you can’t have us both. We want you to choose.” In search of the ultimate icon, the competitors continually labor for the ever-fleeting gaze of the demanding viewer. Raised in a city of past Olympic glory, thee self-dubbed bastard children of the Calgary 88 window Olympics have been forced to reinvent the notion of sport in an attempt to overcome their cultural history. The sport of attention combines the notions of love and leisure, which still following the historical notion of athletics as a perpetual redefinition of the body’s physical limits in relationship to the mental will power of a competitor.

Performing in Stride’s +15 Window will give Karilynn Ming Ho and Gale Allen the opportunity to critically address the tropes of objectification and narcissism in performance art, and develop a new work in response. Their work draws attention to the performativity inherent in Jane Fonda’s popular workout videos while referencing long-term endurance performances by Marina Ambrikovich and their impact on contemporary practices.

 

ARTIST BIO

Both GALE ALLEN and KARILYNN MING HO are emerging artists and received their BFAs from ACAD in 2005. Their video and performative works have been exhibited in Calgary and festivals across Canada including Images Festival, That 70’s Ho and Reel Asian Film Festival.