WESTERN FRONT – Wishing on My Falsies

Western Front is pleased to present Wishing on My Falsies, an exhibition of the collective A Maior and the multidisciplinary artist Katayoon Yousefbigloo that explores the mythmaking potential of playing dress-up. Inspired by the superstition of wishing on fallen eyelashes, the exhibition title reinterprets this ritual through a synthetic channel for desire, reflecting A Maior and Yousefbigloo’s interest in the aspirations and delusions that drive modes of self-fashioning.

Images from a seasonal lookbook by A Maior are scaled up as billboard-sized wallpapers bookending an installation by Yousefbigloo featuring a video and a collection of bootleg merchandise that expands on her P.L.U.R.O.M.A. (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect, Oxygen, Music, Autonomy) lifestyle brand. Together the works spatially and materially toy with the thresholds of authenticity, subverting and spoofing signifiers of glamour, luxury, labour and class to consider how an identity is styled. In a blend of the imagined and the everyday, the artists appropriate commercial language as a world-building vocabulary, constructing characters that reveal their own fiction.

A live performance by Katayoon Yousefbigloo will take place during the opening reception.

In February 2025, Western Front will host the artist Bruno Zhu of A Maior for a residency in which he will lead a series of workshops with local writers towards the development of the sequel novella to Retail Vérité (2023).

Curated by Kiel Torres.

About the Artists

A Maior is a clothing and home goods store located in the outskirts of Viseu, Portugal. Since 2016, an eponymous exhibition program has been hosted within the shopping environment. A Maior is managed by the staff, the artist Bruno Zhu, and his family. A Maior has been featured in exhibitions at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam; Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem; Kunsthalle Freeport, Porto; X Museum, Beijing; Life Sport and BQ, both Berlin. In 2022, A Maior was the writer-in-residence at San Serriffe in Amsterdam, who commissioned Retail Vérité, A Maior’s first novella.

Katayoon Yousefbigloo is an Iranian-born interdisciplinary artist and musician based on the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Through video, music, writing, performance, and visual art she examines how media shapes our mythologies. She investigates potential sites of aesthetic, spiritual, and collective transformation found both materially in undefined or forgotten physical spaces, as well as those embedded within the mass media landscape. Yousefbigloo is a founding member of Liquidation World, an art collective that hosts exhibitions, performances, workshops, fashion shows, and other events.

Accessibility

Western Front’s gallery is a ground-floor, wheelchair-accessible space with a partially accessible all-gender bathroom. Further details about visiting and accessibility at Western Front can be found here.

Acknowledgements

Presented with support from the Audain Foundation.

A Maior, Fall/Winter, (2023-24). Courtesy of the artists.

A Maior, Fall/Winter, (2023-24). Courtesy of the artists.
Katayoon Yousefbigloo, Security Uniform (Glove) (2024). Courtesy of the artist.

Katayoon Yousefbigloo, Security Uniform (Glove) (2024). Courtesy of the artist.
A Maior, Fall/Winter (2023-24). Courtesy of the artists.

A Maior, Fall/Winter (2023-24). Courtesy of the artists.
Katayoon Yousefbigloo, Sellout $cum (2024), video still. Courtesy the artist.

Katayoon Yousefbigloo, Sellout $cum (2024), video still. Courtesy the artist.

Western Front is a non-profit
artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.