Exhibition - The Clichettes: Lips, Wigs, and Politics

Bridging theatre, lip-sync, dance, drag, costume, and comedy, the renowned Canadian artist trio The Clichettes developed a groundbreaking practice at the crossroads of performance art and feminist satire. This exhibition focuses on The Clichettes’ collaboration from 1978 to 1993, when Louise Garfield, Janice Hladki, and Johanna Householder performed to fervent audiences in Toronto and internationally, animating galleries, bars, cabarets, concert halls, festivals, benefits, rallies, and the streets. They produced four full-length plays, performing sold-out shows at theatres and alternative venues across Canada.

Over a fifteen-year period, and hundreds of performances, The Clichettes adopted dozens of personas—from love-sick girl to metalhead to lounge lizard to femme fatale—scrutinizing the tropes of femininity and masculinity as they sought to invert the archetypes so embedded in our cultural landscape. Greek mythology, art history, B movies, science fiction, 60s fashion, Motown, and hard rock: these were just some of their sources and reference points. Their characters were equally eclectic: Medusa, a quail hunter, a beanbag chair, a turtle, Fidel Castro. Unequivocally experimental, playful, and humorous, The Clichettes’ work was always—above all—political, exposing, challenging, and dismantling the structures that define power under patriarchy.

In the group’s first-ever retrospective, the McMaster Museum of Art celebrates The Clichettes’ many dynamic collaborations with artists, writers, designers, and directors. The exhibition brings together over 150 costumes, props, videos, photographs, drawings, scripts, and archival materials that attest to The Clichettes’ radical vision for a better world.

Curated by: Ivana Dizdar

Opening Reception
Thursday, September 19, 5 – 8PM