Untitled III 2003
Part of What It Feels Like for a Girl, Art Gallery of York University (AGYU)
Curated by Phillip Monk 
Photo Credit: Shannon Cochrane 

“Among all the works in the show, Louise Liliefeldt's installation stands out. Liliefeldt is shown in performance on two adjacent screens: one view is shot from a stationary camera, the other from a hand-held camera. Calmly and silently she falls into a man's arms, chugs a glass of wine, stabs between her splayed fingers with a knife, skips rope (an industrial-strength variety that could be used to hang someone), then dunks her head repeatedly in an obsessive washing/drowning ritual. The performance touches on stereotypes of women and women's work and the intersection between violence and play. It is suffused with images of death: the rope, the tub filled with water, the knife and cutting board (with what looks like dried blood on it). The props sit placidly in the gallery space beside the screens, a sort of sculptural vanitas. The implicit danger and violence of the performance, however, coupled with the berimbo music that accompanies it, seem to be as much a call to action for women as an act of mourning. 

The underlying nuance and ambiguity in Liliefeldt's work is powerful, and is unfortunately missing elsewhere in the exhibition.”

“Rewind: what it feels like for a girl”
Review in Canadian Art Magazine by Tara Marshall  (Summer 2004)