Mai-Thu Perret, Les Guérillères (Viet Cong) | 38 St Marks Editions Portfolio

In Féminaire, her 2017 exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery, Mai-Thu Perret created a tableau of monumental figures, comprising nine female soldiers and one dog at rest atop a plateau-like white plinth. An exploration of militant women returns in Les Guérillères (Viet Cong), which features a photograph of an unidentified woman holding a machine gun in repose, seemingly taped to a backing that features four black bands of looping scrawl.

Citing influences such as utopian feminist literature, art theory, Russian Constructivism, and the Arts & Crafts movement, Mai-Thu Perret’s diverse body of work encompasses sculpture, painting, video, and installation. At the beginning of her career, Perret worked on a series called “The Crystal Frontier,” which documented her participation in a women’s commune based in New Mexico. Through diary entries, abstract paintings, and artisanal objects, Perret constructed a piecemeal fictional narrative describing life at the commune. Her recent work continues as an exploded version of this foundational text.

Mai-Thu Perret (b. 1976 in Geneva, Switzerland) lives and works in Geneva, Switzerland. Recent exhibitions include Go and become the incense burner in the old shrine at NICC, Brussels (2017); Sightings at Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016); The Adding Machine at Le Magasin, Grenoble (2012); and Love Letters in Ancient Brick at Swiss Institute, New York (2011). She participated in the 54th Venice Biennale, Venice (2011). She studied at Cambridge University and the Whitney Independent Study Program.