LIV FONTAINE
NO MORE SMALL TALK
3 October - 21 October 2022 | Artist talk 20 October 2022
My name is Venus flytrap. The drawings tell stories in contradiction of feminism and fiction about the righteous and the sick. My name is seething caldron where hot thoughts meet small talk made worse by unshakeable conditions of worth. Why do people always say: you're bubbly when you’ve got big tits? Why do people never say: chaotic disasters can be cathartic. I'm trying hard to identify hot thoughts -cognitive distortions and useless information relating to the mental health status of the closest most distant relation. I'm not a woman who likes small talk, no I'm not a woman who likes small talk. I'm frustrated. I'm humiliated. I’m filled with rage and tension. Some people say prolonged provocation leads to aggression and death while others say stroke deprivation leads to depression and death. Bad perception becomes good presentation and working it out, working it out, working it out just isn't working. The performance of progress becomes the performance of madness but isn't it better to be mad than sad? Isn't it better to be bad then mad? Live a good life die a good death but isn't it better to be A fool dancing on a cliff edge?
BIO
Liv Fontaine is a visual & performance artist whose research-led practice focuses on deconstructing and redefining accepted ideas of sexuality, sickness & status in modern society. Over the past 10 years she has exhibited and performed in numerous group shows and solo presentations in venues including galleries, artist led spaces, bars and car parks - most recently at The Old Hairdressers in Glasgow and Sartre 25 in London. In 2021 her work was exhibited as part of Glasgow international curated in group shows by both Civic Room and Cabbage Arts and a solo show of her drawings was presented as part of Woman 2.1 Online on the Richard Saltoun Gallery website. She recently delivered a series of performance workshops commissioned by Aspace Arts in Southampton and later this year will be performing at the Non-knowledge, Laughter & The Moving Image festival and symposium at HFBK Hamburg.