“The soul of the pre-Socratic Ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras transmigrates into a variety of beings, many of which dwell on the Canadian prairies.” So states Jeanne Randolph, noted Canadian author, cultural theorist, psychoanalyst, performance artist and guest speaker. Pythagoras of the Prairies is the third in a trilogy of exhibitions with photographs and publications forming an ode to Winnipeg, where she dwelt for 18 years after leaving Toronto and before moving to her current home base in Waterloo, Ontario. Randolph expands upon the project further in the continuation of her artist statement, below.

“Emblematic of each individual being’s circumstance, a photograph documents an unintended or ephemeral triangular form composed of objects, sunbeams, shadows, or enigmatic combinations of these. Most of the sites are unidentifiable, and many of them rather indecipherable concatenations of shade, shapes, and rays of light. The intensely saturated colour images seem perhaps to be the consequence of my irresistible compulsion to perceive triangles anywhere and everywhere. In spite of the laconic philosophical or psychoanalytic phrases that Pythagoras recites in his life as a bug, for instance, or as a lizard, a Gimli maiden, even as a cucumber, each situation is absurd and impossible. There is a nihilistic implication regarding human understanding, mirrored in the ambiguity and uninformative imagery of each photograph. The series ends with Pythagoras recounting the details of a dream, a disillusioning conversation between a young Professor of English Literature and Sigmund Freud (who acknowledges he has already been dead more than 80 years and is curious to learn about twenty-first century public life).”

• 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) and My Claustrophobic Happiness (2020). 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.