Litherland is all Tied Up

The works at Thérèse Dion are part of a photographic series he started in 1993, titled Souvenirs. That's actually when all the pictures were shot. "I was too embarrassed by some of them to exhibit the series before," Litherland explains with a smile. But one of the works from the series - Dead 1, which displays the artist as dead, cloistered in a pine box - kept getting attention, particularly as part of Penny Cousineau's book and touring exhibition Faking Death. Litherland figured he might as well own up to the rest of the series.

Souvenirs is a body of work centred on role-playing. The 10 works are self-portraits of Litherland in various outfits: He's a schoolboy in one, a businessman in another, a diesel queen in a third, and, well, you can guess what he is in Tied Up, the work printed here. ("I liked the idea of the fake cock hiding a real one," he smirks.) The prints are careful, balanced in hue and composition with remarkable delicacy. The exercise of self-transformation is where Litherland takes a plunge here, throwing his masculinity, his adulthood, his artistic identity, even his lifeblood, to the wind.

The themes suggested by Souvenirs are personal to Litherland: He can remember growing up in Vancouver, for example, and freezing his knees off through the winter months in his schoolboy shorts. That's what sprouted his desire to relive that moment through performance and then photograph it. But the themes can easily be expanded into a universal experience. The characters he presents are prototypical. And so is the desire: Who hasn't tried, or at least craved, to adopt someone else's identity at one time or another?

Paul Litherland: Absolutely Fabulous
At Galerie Thérèse Dion (372 Ste-Catherine, suite 527), to Sept. 2
 
 

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(((My Two Cents))) - Paul Litherland's Remarkable Exhibition     After reading the little piece about Paul Litherland, I would love to meet him. I love it when someone is famous for being a filled with humour and energy during performance time but is in reality someone who is a very calm-mannered person in real life. That is the work of a true actor, of course. However, Paul Litherland sounds very humble, showing up at his solo exhibition in a t-shirt due to the fact that he didn't expect it to be filled with press. However, that is just him being humble because with the talent that he has as a photographer guarantees that people are going to be curious to see his work. The exhibition itself seems wonderful. 10 pieces of work, all of Paul Litherland, in different stages of life and such. Him as a schoolboy, him as a man all tied up with a fake cock, him as a business man, and ultimately, him dead. This is a great work of self-transformation which throws all aspects of the artist's life to the table. Many of the works themselves are very personal to Paul Litherland and the ultimate theme to the exhibition is the concept of wanting to adopt someone else's identity. Intelligent and artistic, this is definitely an exhibition which has enticed me.
Zachary Masoud		August 12th, 2006

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