Supervisor: Professor Gavin Parkinson
My research focuses on the French-Canadian Surrealist Mimi Parent, who considered Surrealism as a form of rebellion and a tool for individual and collective liberation, art as a weapon for transforming reality, and eroticism as essential for a radical change. Parent鈥檚 approach to Surrealism was distinctly political. Her actions aligned with the anti-dogmatic and decolonial values 鈥嬧媜f the New Left (1960’s and 1970’s).
Specifically, my research will focus on her tableaux-objets. Like magical windows opening onto imaginary realms, floating between dream and reality, her assemblages transport us to unexplored horizons of the unconscious. They evoke the disorienting sensation of living a waking dream while simultaneously dreaming real life. Her boxes are characterized by the use of found objects, which are integrated in miniaturized environments, transforming mundane items into sites of enchantment. Parent used various techniques and media in her compositions. She also incorporated a wide range of materials without assigning them a hierarchy; all were considered noble and worthy to exist in her creations. Once assembled, these objects form an ordered, logical, and coherent whole with a narrative quality. These static scenes represent an instant frozen in time. These moments exist eternally, yet without life. Herein lies the paradox of Parent鈥檚 tableaux-objets: her assemblages exist on the boundary between the animate and the inanimate, between life and death. Parent鈥檚 works are thus perpetually open portals, creating a fluid and constant flow between worlds and realms.
Education
PhD History of Art
Courtauld Institute of Art (2026-)
MA History of Art
University of Montreal (2020-2024)
Dissertation: Recontextualisation f茅ministe des contributions artistiques et id茅ologiques de Mimi Parent au surr茅alisme et 脿 l鈥檋istoire de l鈥檃rt [Feminist Recontextualization of Mimi Parent’s Artistic and Ideological Contributions to Surrealism and Art History].
Scholarship: Marcelle-Ferron Scholarship for graduate students in Art History at the University of Montreal whose academic record is excellent and whose research subject is related to Quebec鈥檚 art history.
BA History of Art
University of Montreal (2017-2019)
Publications
To be published: “Mimi Parent: Rebellious Spirit and Revolutionary Poet” in the book commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the International Surrealist Exhibition in Chicago in 1976, Marvelous Freedom, Vigilance of Desire, edited by Abigail Susik and Ron Sakolsky.
To be published November 17, 2027: . Co-authored with Dr. Maria Rosa Lehmann and commissioned by the Art Canada Institute (ACI).
NIRO, Laurence, 鈥淩ecension: Andrea Oberhuber (2023). Faire 艙uvre 脿 deux, Montr茅al: Les Presses de l鈥橴niversit茅 de Montr茅al鈥, RACAR, Fall 2024.
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NIRO, Laurence, 鈥淓ntre censure et tradition: Araki Nobuyoshi鈥 [Between censorship and tradition: Araki Nobuyoshi], Parall猫le 67, September 2020, pp. 32-43. Peer reviewed and published in the second issue of the journal from the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the University of Montreal.
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Conferences and Talks
October 24th, 2024 鈥 [Cordialement, Mimi Parent: correspondences as a mean of communicating and transmitting ideas], at the international conference organized by Figura, the Research Center on Imaginary Theories and Practices at the University of Qu茅bec in Montr茅al (UQAM).
February 2023 鈥 . First episode of the fourth season of the podcast [Annexes], affiliated with the 贬测辫辞迟丑猫蝉别蝉 conference cycles. Podcast on art history and museum studies proposing discussions between MA and PhD students in art history and museum studies from four universities in Montreal.
November 2023 and April 2021 – Research presentations as part of the BA Art History course HAR 2650-R茅volutions surr茅alistes [Surrealist Revolutions] at University of Montreal.
Winter 2021 – 鈥淭atouages, pouvoirs, shungas et censure dans l鈥檕euvre d鈥橝raki Nobuyoshi鈥 [Tattoos, powers, shunga and censorship in the work of Araki Nobuyoshi], about the article published in Parall猫le 67.
Fall 2020 – (D茅)jouer le binaire: 惭补蝉肠耻濒颈苍/贵茅尘颈苍颈苍 (1959) [(Un)playing the binary: 惭补蝉肠耻濒颈苍/贵茅尘颈苍颈苍 (1959)], in a symposium titled [Rethinking genders and sexualities in the arts, from the Renaissance to today], as part of the MA seminar Genre et sexualit茅s dans les arts [Genders and sexualities in the arts].
Research Interests
- Mimi Parent
- Surrealist Women
- Surrealism
- Modernisms
- Alchemy, Occult, Esotericism, Magic
- Theatricality
- Psychoanalytic concepts: Uncanny, Communicating Vessels, Surrealist Object,聽Esotericism, Fetichism.
- Feminism
- Gender Studies
- Art and Politics