Paulette Phillips: Danielle Arnauld Contemporary Art
Canadian Art, Fall 2004

Paradox is an essential element in Paulette Phillips's work. In her show "The Secret Life of Criminals," it keeps the viewer mesmerized and transfixed. Like a detective at the scene of a crime, the viewer has to unravel a narrative in each of the five video and film installations.

The title piece sets the tone. Viewers are lured to view a three-minute loop of a female contortionist through a stainless-steel cone that points downward. The movement of the contortionist is both liberating and constrictive; with the viewer's own reflection visible on the inside of the cone, one has a hovering self-awareness of being a voyeur.

the work expresses Phillip's concern wiith "how people undo themselves and seemingly participate in their own misfortune." which fits with the exhibition's overall sense of voyeurism. It's about how people judge appearance (2001) shows a well-dressed woman walking down an alley. Suddenly, without provocation, she hits her head against a brick wall. the minute long loop repeats and we hear the thudding sound of her skull hitting brick again and again. She then continues walking, blood dripping down her forehead.

In Smut (2004), it's the title that plays on the viewer's voyeuristic relationship to the art. Ten screens show images of mushrooms, seemingly growing from the floor of the gallery. Nine are backlit photographs; one is a time-lapse video thta shows both mushrooms and the the artist dressed as a mushroom. through headphones, the viewer hears a child-like voice tell the story of an 1897 murder in a Paris cave, where the victim's body was burned and his ashes scattered over mushrooms. the work's title refers to the media's fascination with murder stories, and to the meaning of the word...