THESIS: Nathalie Dubois Calero, Lyndsay McKay, Steve Rose

Thesis is an exhibition presented by the 2023 graduating students at the University of Windsor’s Master of Fine Arts Program, Nathalie Dubois Calero, Lyndsay McKay and Steve Rose. The installation is the culmination of two years of intense studio practice, academic research, a supporting thesis document, and a final solo exhibition at the School of Creative Arts in Windsor, Ontario.

Nathalie Dubois Calero is a BacterHuman – half bacteria, half human. To present her human skin and microbiota’s communication to human viewers, she tracks local interactions between her microbiota and skin through colour changes into pH sensitive jelly patches fixed on her skin. They are her performative creations that she observes and documents. In her performance, Nathalie cuts layers of clothing on her body to reveal the coloured patches, while dancing in conversation with video and audio, conveying the colors and sounds produced by the living cultures on her body.

Lyndsay McKay’s work exposes how the past relates to the present, how temporalities exist like a collection of fragments, and how traces of bodily movement can be transformed through a process of ongoingness. By recognizing the liminality of space and the often imperceptible, but highly charged gap between objects and bodies, and bodies and bodies, Lyndsay seeks to understand more deeply, how differently our histories and experiences position themselves in relation to each other and inside the spaces we inhabit. More specifically, she is interested in the interconnection of intimacy and care with the incursions and violences of daily life.

Steve Rose’s studio practice continues to be influenced from a level of personal loss experience. Attempting to come to terms with the grief, mourning, and eventual healing, Steve’s creativity helps to understand how traumatic loss has changed him and what has shifted over this time. Increasingly, the artist sees himself in the imagery, not as in self-portrait necessarily, but as a reminder of Memento mori. The clarity of realizing that there is more of his own life behind him than there is in front of him, aids in his ability to be present, to live well and to seize the day. Steve notes that research and rumination into the vast areas of life, death, death-sign, skulls and/or effigy will undoubtably contribute to a continued weaving in of ongoing personal experience and potential catharsis to any future work.