From September 7 to October 13, 2018, TOPO‘s Vitrine will showcase CULTURE, an artistic intervention by interdisciplinary art duo Et tu, Machine (Alexis O’Hara and Atom Cianfarani).
On the eve of the legalization of the recreational usage of cannabis, coming into effect on October 17, 2018, the artists transform the TOPO Vitrine into a grow room.
CULTURE aims to celebrate the psychedelic and rebellious roots of this plant while considering the legal parameters by which its distribution and consumption will soon be controlled, as described in the 152 pages of Bill C-45.
Avowed potheads, the artists examine the liminal space that the status of marijuana currently occupies and the social schisms that legalization will reinforce. Although pro-legalization, Et tu, Machine is concerned about the opportunism of corporate production and distribution companies in collusion with the state. Engaging the Toronto Stock Exchange as a performer for this installtion, Et tu, Machine has invested its artist fee in shares of Canadian cannabis companies Canopy Growth Corporation (TSE: WEED.TO) and Hydropothecary (TSE: HEXO.TO).
CULTURE aims to stimulate a conversation around the action and the image of cannabis use in mainstream contemporary society. In flagrant disregard to labyrinthine parameters of the bill, Et tu, Machine offers a rarely seen attraction: a flowering cannabis plant, ready to harvest.
Et, tu Machine
•• The combined practices of interdisciplinary artists Alexis O’Hara & Atom Cianfarani include urban interventions, installations, sound performances, light sculptures and the design of green infrastructure.
Particularly dedicated to spacial subversion, the rescue of waste and the rebirth of objects, Et tu, Machine is committed to divert urban landscapes and social situations to create circumstances that highlight the anarcho-ecological spirit of Queer Imagineering.
While this alliance is nascent, individually, Cianfarani and O’Hara have decades of experience in producing large-scale works of art and design.