Lisa Folkerson is a Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and curator working in video, audio and printed matter. Exploring personal myth and larger social and cultural conventions, Folkerson often uses her body as a site for conversations about the absurdity of cultural systems. She uses an anthropological lens to look at symbols, myths, and construction of the Young-Girl. She diaristically explores relationships and politics of identities, banalities, and rituals with romance, hyperbole and humour.
She holds a BFA in Intermedia from NSCAD University. She has exhibited in Canada and the United States notably at Nuit Blanche 2014 at the Drake 150 in collaboration with Mohammad Rezaei, and at Lugo Gold 2015 at the Remai Arts Centre in Saskatoon, SK in collaboration with Castle If. She has participated in residencies such as the Roundtable Residency at the Dragon Academy as well as Just Call Me Jack gallery in Toronto, ON.
She has published in Crit magazine, and screened her work at Pleasuredome at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto, ON, at XPACE Offsite in Toronto, ON, CKDU Radio in Halifax, NS; as well as curated shows at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, ON, and at Eyelevel Gallery in Halifax, NS.
lisafolkerson [at] gmail.com
CVLisa Folkerson 🌼
about âť’
A series of tableaux vivantes of bad women with bad prospects in paintings. Re-authoring of the Olympias, Ophelias, Carmen Gaudins, Cassandras Siens, Grandes Odalisques and Carolinas.
I lived in a room the size of my bed and spent all my time in that bed so I started making 100 very boring videos in bed.
With Mohammad Rezaei, an outdoor projection + limited edition artists’ multiple tracking the rise and fall of two fantasy art-pop stars. Video-log style confessionals (“Hiiiiii MTV, it’s mee the visual artist Lisa/meee the artist Mohammad, one half of that world famous art duo you know so well. Let me show you MY world”) and karaoke seances in a navigation of the trials of the art world, gossip websites, viral videos and Facebook feeds.
An installation at Ghost Hole 5 at Artscape Gibralter Point on Toronto Island. A safe space in the forest in the form of a protective circle of waterfalls, intended for relief. Viewers spent time feeling soothed by the beauty of waterfalls and rushing water sounds. A circle of 9 small videos showing footage of majestic waterfalls with the sound of powerful streams of water, ethereally lit by gentle blue electronic screens. For privacy and to facilitate a very natural experience, the circle would be away in the woods. About 10 feet in diameter the installation would have monitors or ipods in trees or on the ground depending on final site selection. It evokes images of good magic, havens, and cleansing. But of course, being in the light makes the darkness outside the circle that much darker and unknowable.
Music videos done for Castle If and Ken Park.
Works on silk, in video and on paper that explore symbols of womanhood and moon- ishness, meanings, and ways of learning.
To study weightlessness and infinities (within finite spaces and time that our culture has agreed upon) through the concept of a loop, and to create communication without language in a moving image. A microutopia, a cross between reality and fantasy. There is a connection between outerspace and underwater, unknown places both close to home and infinitely far out.
A book of writing with photographs of my grandmother's youth to illustrate the story.
A performance in collaboration with Vida Beyer. A circle of young women with the same haircut, brushing each other’s hair.
Best friend and sister styled as avatars to explain my identity as Lisa. Looking like me and knowing me intimately they can best embody me and present an accurate portrait.