Jeanne Randolph
Jeanne Randolph is one of Canada's foremost cultural theorists. She is the author of the influential book Psychoanalysis & Synchronized Swimming (1991) as well as Symbolization and Its Discontents (1997), Why Stoics Box (2003), Ethics of Luxury (2007), Shopping Cart Pantheism (2015), Prairie Modernist Noir: The Disappearance of the Manitoba Telephone Booth (2018), and, most recently, My Claustrophobic Happiness. Dr. Randolph is also known for her curation and as an engaging lecturer, performance artist and musician. In universities and galleries across Canada, England, Australia, and Spain, she has spoken on topics ranging from the aesthetics of Barbie to the philosophy of Wittgenstein.
Exhibitions
Editions Part One, January 13 - February 18, 2023, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
What is Left, May 13 - June 11, 2022, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
Parking Lot Pandemic, September 3 - October 2, 2021, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
Prairie Modernist Noir: The Disappearance of the Manitoba Telephone Booth, May 1 - May 30, 2020, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
Prairie Modernist Noir: The Disappearance of the Manitoba Telephone Booth, November 16 – December 7, 2018, Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts, Winnipeg
Presentations
12 February 2021
fashion bandages, “Curative Things: medicine/fashion/art” symposium, Leeds Art University, Leeds UK
2 October 2019
“Thinking Monuments,” School of Art, The University of Manitoba
28 September 2018
Public Conversation with Sameer Farooq (Toronto) and Jared Stanley (Reno Nevada) for Days of Reading: beyond this state of affairs, group exhibition, Plug-In ICA, Winnipeg
28 October 2015
Interpretation and discussion of Shopping Cart Pantheism for Prof. Shepherd Steiner’s University of Manitoba School of Art Graduate Seminar “Horizontalities of Practice: Politics, Process and Psychoanalysis”
June 25 2015
Launch and reading of Shopping Cart Pantheism at Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto
19 January 2013
"What is Ficto-Criticism?" presentation and discussion, for “Your Own Grad School,” project at Modern Fuel Art Gallery, Kingston, Ontario
27 March 2013
“Ficto-Criticism and Ethics,” University of Manitoba MFA theory of art and art criticism seminar, School of Art, University of Manitoba
19 November 2011
"Artists Are Different," presentation and discussion, for Paul Butler's Post-Post Graduate Studies, Art Gallery of Ontario Education Department, Toronto
17,18 November 2011
two-day workshop, "Chagall and the Russian Avant-Garde," Art Gallery of Ontario Education Department, Toronto
10 November 2011
Ethics of Luxury seminar, Theory and Criticism class, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto
11 April 2011
Ethics of Luxury reading group, Mentoring Artists for Women Artists (MAWA), Winnipeg
9 March 2011
“The Ethics of Ficto-Criticism,” extended practices course, Guelph University Department of Art and Music
4 March 2011
“Feminist Art in the Shadow of Freud,” MAWA, Winnipeg
5 March 2010
“Self-Psychoanalysis and Critical Writing,” for Andy Patton’s Writing about Art class, Ontario College of Art and Design
4 March 2010
Guest intellectual, Dot Tuer’s Critical Theory II course, Ontario College of Art and Design
24 February 2010
“Writing Culture in Spite of the Mainstream,” Nestor Kruger’s MFA Studio Course [writing], School of Art, University of Guelph
28 January 2009
“A Critical Analysis of the 1986 Joanne Tod Ficto-Criticism Text,” Art Writing and Criticism course, Ontario College of Art and Design
23 January 2009
“Where You Are When You Write for Art,” Curatorial Studies course, Brock University, Hamilton, Ontario
22 January 2009
“Representations of Adoration,” MFA Proseminar, University of Toronto
10 October 2008
“That Barbie Doll Look,” Feminist Histories class, Emily Carr University of Art and Design
15 October 2007
"How to Figure Where You Are When You Write for Art," University of Toronto, Department of Art and Art History Art Writing course (Prof. Andy Patton)
9 October 2007
"Artists and Ethics," York University MFA Seminar (Prof. Yvonne Singer)
3/4/5 October 2007
Making Do and Make-Believe: a psychoanalysis of on-line gaming," keynote presentation Playing the Gallery: symposium, McIntosh Gallery/ University of Western Ontario
12 September 2007
"Free Association as a Research Methodology," Department of Architecture, University of Manitoba Research and Methodology course (Prof. Nat Chard)
11 October 2005
"The Limits of Ficto-Criticism," visiting scholar, MFA program, Sheffield-Hallam University School of Art, Sheffield, England
10 October 2005
"The Amenable Object," for Art and Psychoanalysis course visiting lecturer, Sheffield-Hallam University School of Art, Sheffield, England
7 May 2005
"Out of Psychoanalysis: a ficto-criticism monologue," Theory and Methods in Art History course, University of Winnipeg
21 February 2005
"Barbie Dolls and Sadism," Writing Women's Lives lecture series, School of Art, University of Manitoba
25 October 2004
Guest lecturer Technology and Science course Alberta College of Art
13 October 2004
Guest artist MFA Contemporary Art Seminar University of Guelph
29 September 2004
"Psychoanalysis and Built Environments," public lecture and discussion for Informal Architecture creative arts residency, the Banff Centre
9 June 2003
"The Relationship between Art and Intellection," public lecture and discussion for Big Rock Candy Mountain creative arts residency, the Banff Centre
17 November 2002
"Thomas Mann: love and decapitation" symposium moderator and presenter The Transposed Bodies exhibition and film by Katja Pratschke and Gusztav Hamos, Goethe-Institute, Toronto
26 April 2002
"The Interdisciplinarity of Psychoanalytic Theory" Graduate Studies visiting artist Fine Arts Department, University of Regina
5 March 2002
"The Psychoanalytic Basis of Ficto-Criticism" Premier Visiting Artists Lecture series Alberta College of Art, Calgary
November 2000
Presentation "Representation and the Unspeakable" Vera Frenkel's Body Missing Project Symposium, Goethe-Institut, Toronto
5-6 May 2000
"Outsider Criticism" presentation for "Enhancing the Artist in 21st Century Society" 20-person Conversations convened by Carol Becker, Dean, School of The Art Institute of Chicago
15 April 2000
"A Repartée with Lyndal Jones" exhibition event ICON Gallery, Birmingham, England
30 March 2000
Respondent to public panel/discussion, Art Gallery of York University, Exhibition "the Hohenbϋchler twins: The Muki Baum School Collaboration"
7 February 2000
"Formal and Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Moshe Safdie's Vancouver Public Library," (co-presenter Bernie Miller) Regina Architecture Association and University of Regina Fine Arts Department special lecture
31 January 2000
"Formal and Psychoanalytic Dimensions of Moshe Safdie's Vancouver Public Library," (co-presenter Bernie Miller) Art and Design Now public lecture series, University of Lethbridge
9 November 1999
"Psychoanalysis and Popular Culture" University of Toronto Residency in Psychiatry Retreat
5 November 1999
"The Ethics of Ficto-Criticism" Universities' Art Association of Canada annual conference, panel on Ficto-Criticism moderated by Prof. Allyson Clay. SFU; with Bruce Grenville and Donald Goodes co- panelists, Toronto, Ontario
9 September 1999
"Practicing Hysteria," The National Gallery of Canada, concurrent with "High Ground" installation by Vera Greenwood at Ottawa Art Gallery
16 October 1998
"Symbolization and its Discontents" for Art in Canada history course Visiting Artist Series, Fine Arts Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver
15 October 1998
"Ficto-Criticism and Art History," visiting artist Fine Arts Department MFA students, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
9 October 1998
"Symbolization and its Discontents," visiting artist seriesx University of Regina, Fine Arts Department
5 October 1998
"Metaphor and Narcosis," special presentation sponsored by The University of Manitoba School of Art and Winnipeg Art Gallery
19 July 1998
"The Paintings of Georgeanne Dean," for Point of View series, Power Plant Gallery at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
28 September 1996
"Between DeSade and the Saga," Bernie Miller and Jeanne Randolph, for ArchitectureParallax/SNACKlunch symposium St. Norbert Arts and Cultural Centre, St. Norbert, Manitoba
21 September 1996
Presentation "Psychoanalysis and Cyberspace," Interpenetrations panel, International Symposium of Electronic Arts, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
February 1996
"A Special Kind of Murder," Violent Images Lecture Series," Fine Arts Department, University of British Columbia
29 January 1996
"What Don't Women Want?" Keynote Address The Female Imaginary Symposium on Feminist Practice Agnes Etherington Art Centre Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario
December 1995
Keynote Address "Technology and the Meaningful Body" Green Mill Dance Symposium, Melbourne, Australia
October 25, 1989
"Culture and the Technological Ethos" MacDonald-Stewart Art Centre University of Guelph, Ontario
February 1988
"Technology as Metaphor" presentation for Towards the Photograph as a Vulgar Document symposium for Galerie Optica's fifteenth anniversary Montreal
May 1986
"Theory as Found Object" YYZ Artists/Critics symposium Ontario College of Art, Toronto
Performances
28 October 2019
“Along the Lakeshore,” reading simultaneous with pole dance performance by Virginia Draghi, Circus of Objects #8, X-Cues sports bar, Winnipeg
15 October 2018
“Prairie Modernist Noir,” performance in advance of solo exhibition and book launch [Prairie Modernist Noir: The Disappearance of Manitoba’s Phone Booths], Platform Gallery, Winnipeg
20 January 2018
“Who’s Your Audience?” performance, Art History Students’ Association symposium The Stories We Tell, Concordia University, Montreal
17 September 2017
“Free Association as Knowledge Production,” What Else Can Art Writing Do symposium, Contemporary Calgary Gallery
October 2017
“For You, Building Built by Very Bad Men,” for Joanne Bristol Writing Workshop, during “What Else Can Art Writing Do” symposium, Contemporary Calgary Gallery
21 July 2016
“Not for Public Consumption,” for Theo Sims’ Candahar installation presentation series, McKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
26 February 2015
“The Bottom Feeders,” for curator J.J. Kegan McFadden’s exhibition, Yesterday Was Once Tomorrow (or, A Brick is a Tool), hosted by Plug-In and Also As Well Too, Winnipeg
31 October 2014
“Id and the Interpretation of Art,” MVA visiting artist, UBC
30 October 2014
“Neuronal Sparks,” Open Space Gallery, Victoria BC
29 October 2014
“Mockery of Grammar,” University of Victoria, distinguished artist series
15 January 2014
“Poetics and Politics of Dissociation,” SBC Gallery Stage Set Stage project, Montreal, [see SBC Gallery website for performance vimeo]
26 September 2013
“Free Association as a Research Methodology,” University of Guelph, School of Art “Topics in Extended Practices” course
20-22 September 2013
“Muddling Freud,” keynote performance for inaugural conference Canadian Network for Culture and Psychoanalysis, University of Toronto [published as “Free Association as a Research Method,” in The Freudian Legacy Today]
25 September 2012
“Muddling Freud [Mummy Bandages: theory as melodrama]” performance UBC MVA visiting artist series, Vancouver
24 September 2012
“Muddling Freud [The Marble Baboon of Toth: hysterical identification]” performance, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver
2011
"How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Commodity Fetishism" performance for WASTE/LUXURY/KNOT project hosted by Jason Rivito Bookseller, Lula Lounge, Toronto,
10 March 2011
“The Art of Ethics,” public performance, Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto
2 August 2010
“When I Was Wittgenstein,” public performance, Maine School of Art, visiting artist presentation, Portland Maine,
4 February 2010
“A Hillbilly Guide to Happy Existentialism” performance for "Public Speakers,” lecture series orchestrated by Jonathan Middleton (Or Gallery, Vancouver), Matthew Stadler (Portland, Oregon) and Stephanie Snyder (Director/Curator of the Cooley Gallery at Reed College, Portland), Vancouver
August 2009
“My Manufactured Life” solo performance for ODD gallery/KIAC, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, The Natural and the Manufactured arts festival
19 November 2008
“existential pedagogy: a demonstration” performance for Art School Anatomies project, School of Art, University of Manitoba
16 October 2008
“The Thrill is Gone” performance for lecture series in conjunction with WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition and lecture series, Vancouver Art Gallery
10 October 2008
“Free Association as a Research Method [Muddling Freud part one]” for Masters Visual Arts group, University of British Columbia
8 August 2008
"The Critical Object [digital redux]" performance in conjunction with Adrian Fish installation, Platform Gallery, Winnipeg (book from transcript and images published 2010)
8 May 2008
“i can teknologies” performance, Videopool, Winnipeg
November 2005
"Learning from the Defective" miniDVD performance for UAAC annual conference, University of Victoria panel "Performance and Pedagogy"
13 October 2005
"The Critical Object" performance, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK
16 April 2005
"The Domestic Unconscious" [solo monologue performance, zeugmaville pt. 2] for "RE: Building the World" exhibition panel discussion: "Envisioning Place: Dwelling + Psychology," Edmonton Art Gallery
30 October 2004
“zeugmaville pt. 1: Lost League of Appalachian Philosopher-Sluts" solo performance at The Banff Centre Informal Architecture/Banff International Curatorial Institute conference
14 September, 2004
"How We Got to Now: a monologue," solo performance for Contemporary Canadian Art course, Department of Art and Music visiting artist, University of Guelph
16 September 2004
"Jeanne Randolph, itinerant intellectual," solo performance for visiting artist series, University of Western Ontario Fine Arts Department
5, 6, 10, 11 February 2004
"Das Cabinet des Dr. Randolph": day 1 "Gizmo Surrealismo;" day 2 "Carnival of Despair;" day 3 "Phenomenology of Doo-Dads," day 4 "Preconscious Slime:" four solo performances for The Gothic Unconscious group exhibition, curator Sigrid Dahle, Gallery 1.1.1. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
12-13 December 2003
"An Incomplete dialogue of Bastard Genius occasioned by the discovery of a Changeling tome on the doorstep of a Canadian studio," [scripted dialogue with Bernie Miller] Architecture-Parallax: there's no life like it, Forum La Caixa, Barcelona
February 2003
Twenty-five-minute extemporaneous declaration upon the word "pivot," chosen at random from dictionary by an audience member [slides arranged spontaneously by Master of Ceremonies] at Trampoline Hall peregrinating performance project, Cameron House Tavern, Toronto
May 2003
Summing Up performance ("Rocky Mountain Extemporaneous Photo-Lyrical Hindsight") for Obsession, Compulsion, Collection symposium, Banff International Curatorial Institute, The Banff Centre
May 2003
Moderator and a performance for "Anatomy of Impulse" panel at Obsession, Compulsion, Collection symposium Banff International Curatorial Institute, The Banff Centre
June 2003
"Media Arts and Ethics," spontaneous diatribe for Sara Diamond, The Beauty of Collaboration symposium, Banff New Media Institute, The Banff Centre [official Banff Centre video plus a bootleg video distributed by Rachel-Beth Egenhofer, U.S.A.]
2003
Monologue for Electric Living in Canada, DVD-ROM by James K-M and Carol Stills
16 November 2002
"Elegy for an Educated Bum," soliloquy performance (live www. and video) for abus mutuel/négocier la suvivance symposium Optica/Artexte/SAC, Montreal
28 February 2002
"Why Stoics Box," public free association soliloquy performance, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina
March 2002
“Sentimental Value” solo performance/public-participation event, Dunlop Art Gallery, Regina
23 October 2001
"Acting Out, Play-Doh® and Doubt: a personalized history of performative lecturing" for syntaxerrrors series (Vancouver: Artspeak/Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts/LIVE Biennial of Performance Art)
March 1998
"Theory as Praxis,” solo free association performance for The Critics Series #3 -- One Hundredth Anniversary of the Publication of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, Dalhousie University Art Gallery
1992
Free association video performer as "one of the barflies" in artist Vera Frenkel's multi-media TRANSIT BAR installation, The National Gallery, Ottawa, May 1996; The Power Plant Gallery Toronto 1994, and DOCUMENTA VIII, Kassel, Germany
Public Readings
20 November 2020
Reading “Silver Pink,” “Black Treasure” and “Ghost,” My Claustrophobic Happiness (Winnipeg: ARP Books) launch, youtube [excerpt]
August 2020
Reading Shopping Cart Pantheism for one-day event Credos: Lieu (Radio) Charlottetown and Montreal, orchestrated by Michael Eddy [excerpt]
March 2020
Public reading, “Bygone Background Noise,” for Kristin Nelson’s launch of Sydney Sydney CD, Garry Street Coffee, Winnipeg [excerpt]
4 October 2018
Public reading chapter from “Dr. Doolittle’s Death Diary,” M:ST festival, for launch of Rita MacKeough: Works, Calgary Alberta [excerpt]
6 September 2017
Public reading, “Diary of a Bright Blue Molecule,” Nuit Blanche Winnipeg
10 September 2016
Public reading, “sewer of stories,” The Winnipeg Effect: Should I Stay or Should I Go? symposium, presented by CCCA at Winnipeg Art Gallery
28 June 2016
Public reading Shopping Cart Pantheism on CKUW’s [hannah_g’s] Monkey Sparrow radio show, Winnipeg 95.9 fm [excerpt]
28 January 2016
Public reading “Takeoff,” Miss Liberty,” “It’s All Good,” from Shopping Cart Pantheism, Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture, University of Manitoba [excerpt]
24 October 2015
public reading “Takeoff” and “My Hanky” from Shopping Cart Pantheism, at Broken Pencil/CANZINE 2015 Radical Reading event, Millennium Library, Winnipeg [excerpt]
15 August 2015
Reading “Skyscraper Sublime” at The New Gallery Writers Project (“A Manifesto Has Come to Light”) Open House #3, Stride Gallery, Calgary
6 August 2015
Public reading “Takeoff” and “My Hanky” at launch of Shopping Cart Pantheism, ShelfLife Books, Calgary [excerpt]
25 June 2015
Reading “Miracle Mile,” “My Hanky” and “Miss Liberty” at launch of Shopping Cart Pantheism, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto [excerpt]
28 May 2015
Reading “Takeoff” and “It’s Nice to See You,” at launch of Shopping Cart Pantheism, McNally-Robinson Booksellers, Winnipeg [excerpt]
16 May 2015
Reading “Takeoff” and “My Hanky” at launch of Shopping Cart Pantheism and Out of Psychoanalysis: ficto-criticism 2005-2015, Artspeak, Vancouver [excerpt]
22 September 2012
Reading “Hole in the Sky,’ launch of Out of Psychoanalysis: ficto-criticism 2005-2011 at Artspeak, Vancouver, B.C. [excerpt]
25 March 2011
Public reading ”Along the Lakeshore” at Architects Without Borders 10x20x20 event at Park Theatre, Winnipeg
February 2009
Public reading, “Hole in the Sky,” for Aidan Urquhart solo exhibition Heaven and Hell, Dunlop Art Gallery, reprinted in Out of Psychoanalysis: ficto-critcism 2005-2011 (2012)
November 2008
Reading Ethics of Luxury: Materialism and Imagination, for “Imagining Ethics” program, Invisible Cities festival, Tucson, Arizona [excerpt]
12-13 December 2003
Public reading [with Bernie Miller], "An Incomplete dialogue of Bastard Genius occasioned by the discovery of a Changeling tome on the doorstep of a Canadian studio," [co-authored by Bernie Miller] Architecture-Parallax: there's no life like it, Forum La Caixa Barcelona
June 2003
Reading: "The Peaceable Kingdoms," book launch of Why Stoics Box, Artspeak Gallery, Vancouver
28 November 2002
une lecture, “Table Talk,” [en Français] Families panel, 35th Anniversary film retrospective, Canadian Independent Filmmakers Distribution Centre, Toronto
March 2001
Reading "Surveillance and Moral Imagination: a psychoanalysis" Le Troisième Colloque International du Centre de Récherche sur L'Intermedialité (Concordia University with University of Montreal), Pratiques Médiatiques de la Manipulation Identitaire, Montreal
28 October 1999
une lecure "Les Instabilités de Sigmund Freud" [en Français] FOLIE CULTURE 6th vernissage, Quebec City
15 September 1999
Reading "Psychoanalysis Plays with Barbie Dolls," as Distinguished Lecturer Canadian Psychiatric Association Annual Convention, Toronto
13 October 1998
Reading Symbolization and its Discontents, "Jeanne Randolph: An Evening Salon," Vancouver Art Gallery [excerpt]
3 October 1998
Reading "Truth Disguised as Lie," launch for Symbolization and Its Discontents, St. Norbert Art and Cultural Centre, Manitoba [excerpt]
17 September 1997
Reading "That Barbie Doll Look: a psychoanalysis, Body Politic: Incarnations, Inscriptions, Adhesions, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon
28 September 1996
Reading, "Between DeSade and the Saga," Bernie Miller and Jeanne Randolph, for ArchitectureParallax/SNACKlunch<.i> symposium St. Norbert Arts and Cultural Centre, St. Norbert, Manitoba