Bridget Moser: You Opened That Can Now Let's Eat the Whole Thing

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Bridget Moser, "Join the Club," 2019

still from video: Join the Club (2019)

Opening reception for members and guests: Thursday, June 20 at 7 pm

Performance at 8:30 pm

You Opened That Can Now Let’s Eat the Whole Thing is a new project by interdisciplinary artist Bridget Moser that considers the limitations of self-soothing, the potential deficiencies of wellness, and the implications of finishing what you started. Conceived during her two-month residency at SPACES in Cleveland, Ohio, the exhibition will feature an installation with video works, various retail and commercial objects and a 26-minute performance. You Opened That Can Now Let’s Eat the Whole Thing will be presented across Latitude 53’s two gallery spaces, marking the first time Moser’s work has been shown in Edmonton. 

Moser’s translation of the exhibition into a Canadian context will allow for her interest in malls to expand into Edmonton’s own mega-mall psyche. The Cleveland Mall was a preliminary site of research for Moser, and although more of a large public park than a shopping mall, the homonymic connection between the Cleveland Mall and shopping malls framed this project. While in Cleveland, Moser discovered three ‘dead malls’—abandoned and eventually demolished former shopping centres that were, in the last year alone, replaced with massive Amazon fulfillment centres.

Evoking the feeling of being in a long-abandoned mall, Moser will transform the gallery space through the use of a faint soundtrack and an installation of video works amid props and retail display. The two videos on display are a digital embodiment of Moser's performance practice, complete with her soft palette selection and quick-timed monologues. Through her absurd and morph-able material choices, many of which are sourced from Amazon, Moser raises the question of the validity of physical retail spaces and the implications of her own work within this. 

In a city heavily defined by its mall, Moser considers the psychological implications of living in the shadow of a slowly-fading entity. However, at the centre of her investigation lies an absurdist humour, in which a pink inflatable coffin provides her a suitable resting place from the complexities of contemporary life. You Opened That Can Now Let’s Eat the Whole Thing considers the implications of self assurance amid times of irreversible consumption.

Bridget Moser is a performance and video artist whose work combines prop comedy, experimental theatre, performance art, absurd monologue, existential anxiety and intuitive dance. She has presented work in venues across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Mercer Union, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Oakville Galleries, Vancouver Art Gallery, MSVU Gallery, and Western Front. She has presented projects throughout the US and Europe and has been a resident artist at Fondazione Antonio Ratti in Como, Italy, and visiting faculty at The Banff Centre. Her work has been featured in Canadian Art, C Magazine, Art in America, Artribune Italy, The Dance Current, NOWNESS, and a collaborative publication with other Fondazione Antonio Ratti residents published by Mousse Magazine. She was shortlisted for the 2017 Sobey Art Award.

Performance | What Will Stay You Alive Thursday, June 20 at 8:30pm

Moser’s performance, What Will Stay You Alive is a series of monologues that fade in and out like old television signals. She cycles between earnest infomercials to moments of operatic intensity, signalled by the wacky orchestra of sound effects, voices and music that run behind her. Moser’s impeccable timing allows her to effortlessly shift from moments of high emotion to fake smiles and blank stares. Humour is Moser’s greatest weapon, as she spins tales of late-stage consumer capitalism around strange massage devices that were purchased from Amazon. Candy-coloured inflatable coffins and soft tones of pink and blue inform a palatable cataclysm—she serves up harsh realities in pink shopping bags.

Moser brings into question the idea of “wellness” and exposes the surplus of self-help objects that mark the evidence of the many voids created by late-stage capitalism. As the threats of overconsumption become harder to ignore, the algorithms that curate our taste and manipulate our desire offer an ever-expanding list of objects to soothe the aches of our own misfortunes. The absurdity of late capitalism and its abundance of self-help practices is spotlighted by Moser, and she makes the futility of these efforts all the more present through her comedic engagement with the audience. In her performance, What Will Stay You Alive, Moser offers a solution to the self-assured impulses of consumers today: “if you feel like you are falling, then why not dive.”