SHANNON BOOL & MATT MORRIS

The body is the central theme in Shannon Bool's (*1972, CAN) work. Her interest is based on the concept of the "lived body", a term coined by the phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty, who asserts that external reality and subjective identity are the reciprocal result of bodily experience and action in space. A crucial role is played by the adaptation of the history and production techniques of a wide variety of cultures, ranging from the bodily processes of sculpture and painting to the generation of synthetic, digital image worlds. In her carpet works, she ironically celebrates ideals of male views of the female body, exaggerating these fantasies and exposing them in a gesture of repetition. 
Bool has invited Chicago-based artist, perfumer and writer Matt Morris (*1985, USA) to collaborate with her on a strawberry stand. In addition to his artistic practice, Morris has written numerous texts on works by Routledge and De Gruyter, among others. Along with his interest in gender and sexuality studies and his curatorial work on gender issues, he is also interested in fairy lore and making quite extraordinary arrangements of scents. 
At the Musée de la Fraise, Bool and Morris's work L'autre Commande Féminine de Bonbons Incendiés de Rubis looks at art historical and philosophical posits regarding sensuality and female sexuality in order to deconstruct and reweave them. On display in the stand, Morris has developed four specific fragrances, each referring to a different state or identity of four "mature women", while Bool places one of her series of "Gaslight" sculptures: a street lamp of hand-blown, seemingly frame-splitting glass, modelled on historical gas lanterns in the strawberry's outdoor space as a commentary on society's perceptions of reality.