Pat Oleszko at Brandeis University
12/14/2016
12/14/2016
Fool for Thought
Tree of Life 2016 grantee Pat Oleszko makes a spectacle of herself—and doesn’t mind if you laugh. With elaborate handmade costumes and props, she utilizes the body as armature for ideas in an array of lampoons that call her audience to action. From the personal to the political, her performances and installations ceremoniously exorcize through humor. Hoisting an enormous burning bra on the exterior of the Women’s Studies Research Center, the exhibition Fool for Thought highlights costumes and performances from a wild variety of events including Hello Folly: The Floes & Cons of Arctic Drilling, Oldilocks and the Bewares, Stalking Walking Topiary and The Pat and the Hats. Oleszko, self-identified as the Fool in question and the questioning Fool, fans the flames with rousing absurdity and maintains that she who laughs, lasts.
November 21, 2016 - March 3, 2017
Artist's Lecture and Reception: January 25, 2017
Kniznick Gallery
Women's Studies Research Center
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA