There are minimums to operate properly
Christopher Lacroix – 2021
There are minimums to operate properly brings together sculpture, photography and augmented technical drawings that present a strategy for non-hierarchical ways of being.
The central work, There is a minimum to operate properly (2019) is an elaborate structure inspired by gym equipment and fetish furniture. The structure is operated by two occupants who control a series of mirrors and bodily restraints through cranks and pullies that require constant physical exertion. The operation of the structure reveals the occupants’ buttholes to each other and themselves, creating a reciprocal dynamic of power and vulnerability. On the walls of the gallery is the title work There are minimums to operate properly (2019) which serves as an instructional image for the structure’s use. Also included in the exhibition is a suite of 22 engineering prints. The suite, titled Technically, … (2021), presents schematics for the construction of the structure, but have had the dimensions and all contextual information removed. In removing this critical information, the drawings are rendered useless as they become art objects. This gesture brings into question art’s commonly assumed ability—given its innate ambiguity—to affect concrete change, thereby emphasizing the absurdity of the works in the exhibition.
There are minimums to operate properly was on display in the Main Gallery from October 19, 2021 to December 4, 2021.
About the Artist
Christopher Lacroix
Christopher Lacroix is a white settler of French, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. His practice utilizes familiar materials and objects in conceptually and formally absurd ways, generating queer perspectives that are often a blend of humour, refusal, and aspirations for alternative relations and futures. He holds a BFA in Photography from X University and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of British Columbia. In 2018, Lacroix received the Phil Lind Emerging Artist Prize and has since shown at The Polygon Gallery (Vancouver), Gallery TPW (Toronto), and the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Arts (Kelowna). He lives and works in Vancouver which is located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh ̱ (Squamish), and Səlílwətaʔ ̓ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.