VoCA contributor Catherine Toews visited Allyson Mitchell’s exhibition in Kingston, Ontario recently. Here are her thoughts:

An installation shot of the exhibition’s dolls. Image: uniongallery.queensu.ca

Allyson Mitchell’s mixed-media work integrates a dizzying array of soft, girly, gaudy components – Cabbage Patch doll heads, hooked animal rugs, cross-stitched kittens, ceramic dolls, and fuzzy pink afghan blankets. It is a testament to Mitchell’s crystal clear vision and considerable technical skill that she has managed to combine such disparate, kitschy components into two strong, subtle installations for her exhibition at the Union Gallery on the Queen’s University campus.

Allyson Mitchell, Midge, 2006. Image: allysonmitchell.com

In the main space, a snake-like army of bonneted porcelain dolls marches towards a bulbous crocheted brain perched atop a pedestal. These dolls, each with large brains swelling underneath their bonnets, speak to issues of dismissed female intelligence ongoing struggles for understanding and respect. Although the timing may be un-intentional, this installation is particularly interesting when seen on the Queen’s campus in the wake of the university’s annual “frosh week,” where legions of students race around the campus in head-to-toe body paint. Mitchell’s dolls, each so tenderly painted and unique within the crowd, stand in refreshing, compelling contrast to the frosh week group activities, which, from an outsider’s view, equate aesthetic sameness with true belonging.

Inside the ‘menstrual hut’. Image: uniongallery.queensu.ca

In the gallery’s project room space, Mitchell has crafted an insane “menstrual hut” blanketed in wall-to-wall, clashing textiles. Viewers are invited to kick off their shoes and enter the smile-inducing space. The initial impact is so humorous that was hard for us to fully focus on the video playing on one wall of the hut. However, the video deserves a close viewing. In it, Mitchell uses crocheted afghans and a traditional Afghani war rug to critique the mixed messages communicated to Canadians by the media about what is really happening in Afghanistan.

A reception and walk through with the artist will be held on Thursday, October 9 from 7-9pm.

For more on Mitchell’s work, please click HERE.

To visit the exhibition website, please click HERE.