If Every Mother Were a Saint, Heaven Would Be Full By Now

Veronique d’Entremont is an artist whose performances, videos and installations consider how we are shaped by the social and institutional spaces we inhabit--from academic, religious & medical institutions to our families of origin--and seeks methods to transform our relationship to these institutions. The artist’s recent work involves a bid to have her own mother, who committed suicide in 1999, promoted for sainthood within the Catholic Church. D’Entremont will present her research into the bureaucratic procedure for attaining sainthood and authenticating relics, examine the historical lives of saints for traits that would today receive psychiatric diagnoses, and explicate the cause for the canonization of her own mother. Through this presentation, d’Entremont challenges our notions of the artistic “canon,” mental illness, morality, and our procedures for authentication and valuation within institutional and social settings.

Veronique d’Entremont exhibits internationally, including a recent performance at Human Resources Los Angeles titled “Church of Art,” and has received grants from Joan Mitchell Foundation (2012), Social Practice Art (SPArt) (2016) and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (2018). She has presented her work at institutions including UCLA, CalArts, and California Rehabilitation Center, a prison in Norco, CA. In 2016, d’Entremont co-founded the Liberated Arts Collective with four formerly-incarcerated artists, and continues to cultivate spaces where, through art, individuals may heal from the impacts of institutionalization.