M HKA Ensembles

Book, 24 x 24 cm, 256 p, language: English, publisher: JRP Ringier – (fragments published in Land of Crystal monographic publication on Mai-Thu Perret), ISBN: 978-3-905701-55-5.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2010/340).

Literary synopsis

Since 1999 Mai-Thu Perret has been writing a story entitled The Crystal Frontier. This ongoing story follows a group of women disillusioned with capitalist society and patriarchal convention, who set up an autonomous community in the desert of New Mexico. This community called “New Ponderosa” is dedicated to the invention of a new, non-alienated relation to labor and nature. The novel is comprised of a series of discrete fictional texts that take various forms (including diary entries, letters, daily schedules, and song lyrics) written by commune members.

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

In addition to the narrative of The Crystal Frontier, Mai-Thu Perret creates objects, which she describes as the “hypothetical production” of the commune. Mai-Thu Perret examines the role and the function of her fiction in relation to the objects she makes and the exhibition environment in which they are displayed. These exhibitions consist mainly of works such as a monumental minimalist sculpture, a life-size papier-mâché group of women with children, her own texts, ceramic wall reliefs, flags and neon lights.

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