Tanya Mars Toronto, Canada

In Pursuit of Happiness

FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St. http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca
Co-presented by LIVE and FUSE at the Vancouver Art Gallery

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26

NOON TO MIDNIGHT

Location: Vancouver Art Gallery

With signature delightful theatricality, one of Canada’s most renowned performance artists, Tanya Mars is joined by Alissa Firth-Eagland to present In Pursuit of Happiness, a continuous twelve-hour performance
based on Mars’ epic 2004 work The Tyranny of Bliss. A provocative meditation on excess and consumption in life, In Pursuit of Happiness constructs a modern day social satire looking at the human condition from
both utopic and dystopic perspectives. Two women in lavish dress hold court at a table set for an opulent party complete with cake so decadent as to incite debauchery. A picture-perfect representation of the haves and the have nots. Inspired by the medieval fresco of Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of the Effects of Good and Bad Government on the City Life, Federico Fellini’s Satyricon, Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights and medieval Miracle plays, Mars presents a single spectacular tableau vivant (a “living image”) characterized as visually rich layers of spectacular, satirical feminist imagery.

Tanya Mars is a performance and video artist who has been involved in the Canadian art scene since 1973. Her work is often characterized as visually rich layers of spectacular, satirical feminist imagery. She currently teaches Performance Art at University of Toronto.