Molly Shea
October 13th – November 4th 2023
Opening Reception: Friday October 13th 7- 10 pm
Halloween Party and Performance: Saturday October 28th 6- 10 pm
Bass Pro Shops Tour and Artist Talk: Saturday November 4th 12-3 pm
Find more details on the project website
Bass Ghost Shop
Inspired by American pageantry and the commodification of survivalist aesthetics, this Haunted Bass Ghost Shop will be a collection of objects, merchandise, and installations from Shea and fiends.
With fiend collaborators: Mac Akin, Evelia Amores, Ashton Amores, Devin Balara, Brandon Ballengée, Emily Brannan, Shannon Cruz, Jordan Wiley Hess, Serena Aurora Day Himmelfarb, Charlie Mabry, Benjamin Martin / Poose the Puppet, Alicia Piller, Britt Ransom, Six Sisters Printing, and Jane Tardo.
Performance artist and anti-social practice artist Molly Jo Shea embraces her change in location from Los Angeles to the South by recreating a Bass Pro Shop as a Haunted House for Yes We Cannibal during the month of October. In this version of BPS, the clientele has left, and the taxidermy has come alive for Halloween to talk about the store they look over and their lost time in the woods.
Videos, murals, ceramics, and products merge together to tell a broader story of toxic masculinity, but also as a genuine appreciation for man’s attempt at communing with nature (despite the avenues to this interaction slowly being commodified and deteriorating).
Pulling in Shea’s personal experiences with teaching herself to fish, meeting folks creating pottery with her gunsmith ex-boyfriend, and being guided through Southern living; the universal becomes personal and the great outdoors, indoors.
Come to the Halloween party dressed as a hunter or a taxidermied animal. Beef Jerky cocktails and cornbread will be available for purchase. Performance by Cooter the Opossum and night janitor will take place at 7:00 PM.
An audio installation map of the real Bass Pro Shops will be available for a walking tour of the Denham Springs location.
BIO
Molly Jo Shea (b. 1989) is a first generation Los Angelino, now living in Mississippi for the first time amongst her Southern roots. She is a performer, ceramicist, and part-time con man. She received her master’s degree at Cal Arts in integrated media in 2019 and her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in sculpture and new media.
When she is not trying to learn how to fish by the casinos in Biloxi, she’s training to squash watermelons with her thighs and is Miss Information at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art.
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