Jennifer Chan‘s solo exhibition The Blue Pill at Brandon’s AGSM (Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba) opened September 28 and is running to November 18.
The installation uses a number of mediums, including video, object assemblage, webpages, sound and prints to “explore her frustrated relationship with radical politics, workplace mundanity, and equality.” Politics, marketing and buzzwords like ‘diversity’ are picked apart to confront subjugation and exploitation and the ways these realities have become simulated into something neat.
The title refers to the 1999 sci-fi film The Matrix and lead character Neo’s choice between the red and blue pill, the latter of which will make the character “conveniently reject arcane knowledge in favour of living out a comfortable yet inauthentic lie.” It also references the way this term has been co-opted by men’s rights activist groups.
The exhibition also comes with an accompanying webpage which is an updated version of Valerie Solanas’ SCUM Manifesto (1967) and includes contributions/collaborations by Devin Kenny, Thomas Kim and Georges Jacotey.**