Katie Bethune-Leamen: La douche écossaise

Toronto, ON – Opening on 28 November 2019 from 6 - 8pm and running until 25 January 2020, the gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new work by Katie Bethune-Leamen.

In La douche écossaise, Katie Bethune-Leamen thinks across a multitude of references: squashed Crush cream soda cans, the propositions of shrimp, the green of Art Nouveau ceramics, honeydew Melona bars, glazed hams, the windows in the Diego Rivera Museum, bathroom design, among others.

Comprised of new installation, sculpture, and wall-based works in a range of materials including porcelain, bronze and aluminum, marble and printed imagery, the exhibition takes its title from a 19th century term originally used to describe a spa treatment of alternating hot and cold water. Encountered by the artist in her research into the Théâtre du Grand-Guignol—Paris’s storied populist theatre of the shocking and schlocky (1897-1962)—the term was used as a metaphor to describe the theatre’s nightly bill of short plays that alternated between light-hearted, romantic or sexy fare, and psychological, visceral horror. 

Bethune-Leamen’s installations thrum with experiences of particular public spaces, vernacular visual language and encounters with objects. Interested in the resonance of being in the material world, and in the affect of relationships with certain objects and visual information, the works both express these experiences and create a forum for more of the same.

For more information please contact the gallery or visit our website.