The Grasshopper's Ball

Hilary Galbreaith

15 Oct 2021 — 15 Jan 2022

Raised in California and now living and working in Rennes, Hilary Galbreaith (b. 1989) combines American influence with French culture. Her work is deeply marked by the use of tutorials and by the Western concept of "do it yourself". The "do it yourself", in French "faites le vous-même”, represents a philosophy of resourcefulness as well as of knowledge sharing, easy diffusion and recycling. Often socially committed, the concept provides an alternative to the market system and to ultra-consumption; it is also linked to the ideas of “less is more” and self-governance. All of these notions are found at the heart of the multimedia practice of Hilary Galbreaith, who multiples videos, DIY sculptures and zines.

The exhibition The Grasshopper's Ball is conceived as a stroll through the twists and turns of Hilary Galbreaith's pop universe. Curtains, dyed with natural pigments by the artist, divide the space into sections corresponding to various stages of creation. For several years, the artist has been working on a fiction entitled Bug. The story begins in the city of New New Orleans and focuses on a catastrophe affecting certain humans: an infection transforms them into humanoid insects. The plot evokes horror and sci-fi films, from Starship Troopers to District 9 and B-movies, but evacuates the classic binary conception of “good versus evil.” Three distinct bodies of work have been imagined by the artist: The Bureau, a zine exploring the origins and the creation of a complex and absurd administration for this new marginal world; Bug Eyes, a video series featuring puppets in a reality show; and Parade, the most recent instalment, which... [lire plus]

Co-production:
Cripta747 Residency Program, Ministry of Culture / DRAC Bretagne, In Extenso, City of Rennes

Musicians: 
Attic Ted, Alien Prod, Alix Desaubliaux, David Donovan, Christophe Scarpa, Simon Thiebert, Pietra Tonale, TNHCH