In the gallery-turned-theatre, Miss Chemistry Dress<\/em> (2023) gleams underneath a spotlight, its glossy pink-and-purple lenticular fabric shifting at every angle. A black pageant-like sash identifies its wearer, and I await her speech. On the wall opposite from the gown is a video of Miss Chemistry. She speaks monotonously, recalling her experiences at the World\u2019s Fair. A simulacrum of Miss Chemistry is projected onto an otherwise faceless mask topped with a platinum wig. Enrobed in nylon stockings and the same plastic gown, person and material collapse into one non-human being. Her supernaturally deceptive appearance is reminiscent of pop-culture characters such as the floating head of The Wizard of Oz<\/em> and the fortune-telling Madame Leota from Disneyland\u2019s Haunted Mansion attraction. Onscreen behind her and in the gallery, red-velvet curtains evoke an opera house or the otherworldly Red Room in the television series Twin Peaks<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$\"Se\u0301amus-Gallagher\"$
S\u00e9amus Gallagher<\/strong>
Mother Memory Cellophane,<\/em> exhibition view, 2023.
Photo: Laura Dumitriu, courtesy of McCord Stewart Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Along the side walls, several lenticular prints oscillate between image and text. The material demands that I shift my body to observe their ever-changing surface, making it difficult to look away. At once, eight stockinged mannequin legs disappear to reveal the work\u2019s title, A Lovely View Gives Way to A Haunted Site<\/em> (2023). Advertising the advantages of nylon stockings, the words Miraculous Substance Infinite Shape<\/em> (2023) flicker atop a full-body portrait of Miss Chemistry, who extends her leg to unveil the synthetic garment that she is invented to sell. The lenticular surfaces enact a haunting of their own\u200a\u2014\u200afrom one moment to the next, like apparitions, figures come in and out of view. In their variability, the prints subvert heteronormative notions of time, gender, sexuality, and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Se\u0301amus-Gallagher\"$
S\u00e9amus Gallagher<\/strong>
Mother Memory Cellophane,<\/em> exhibition view, 2023.
Photo: Laura Dumitriu, courtesy of McCord Stewart Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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$\"Se\u0301amus-Gallagher\"$
S\u00e9amus Gallagher<\/strong>
Mother Memory Cellophane,<\/em> exhibition view, 2023.
Photo: Laura Dumitriu, courtesy of McCord Stewart Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Archival materials are included amongst Gallagher\u2019s works to contextualize the exhibition\u2019s historical grounding. Alongside a photograph of the \u201creal\u201d Miss Chemistry is the promotional film A New World Through Chemistry<\/em>, produced by DuPont to advertise the applications of their synthetic fibres. An impeccably preserved pair of pink nylons spill out from a black box made to store them. Upon its worn surface is the shadowy portrait of a woman, \u201cPhantom\u201d coincidentally printed to her side. Phantoms, ghosts, haunts\u200a\u2014\u200aall intangible manifestations of memory that allow us to confront what is unfamiliar or unseen. Beyond its superficial glimmer, Mother Memory Cellophane<\/em> carefully exposes how innovations of the past can be the menaces of the present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An artist, writer, and cultural worker based in Tiohti\u00e1:ke\/Mooniyang\/Montr\u00e9al, Austin Henderson holds an MA in art history from Concordia University. His work is attentive to community-based practices, queer activism, and popular visual culture, and he has recently contributed to Esse arts + opinions <\/em>and Visual Arts News<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Austin Henderson, S\u00e9amus Gallagher<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McCord Stewart Museum,<\/strong> Montr\u00e9al
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