Dana Wyse is a Canadian writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 and visual artist

Visual arts

The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...

. In 1991, Dana Wyse received her BFA from the University of British Columbia

University of British Columbia

The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

. She lives and works between Vancouver and Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

In 1996, Wyse began her best known artwork

Work of art

A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...

, a pill-themed installation called Jesus Had A Sister Productionshttp://www.art-press.fr/index.php?v=magp&w=2006 It is a work-in-progress to which the artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 adds new elements each year. Using humour and irony, Wyse’s pharmacy discusses such universal themes as gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

, race, existence

Existence

In common usage, existence is the world we are aware of through our senses, and that persists independently without them. In academic philosophy the word has a more specialized meaning, being contrasted with essence, which specifies different forms of existence as well as different identity...

, spirituality

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

, death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that sustain a living organism. Phenomena which commonly bring about death include old age, predation, malnutrition, disease, and accidents or trauma resulting in terminal injury....

, politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

, identity

Identity (social science)

Identity is a term used to describe a person's conception and expression of their individuality or group affiliations . The term is used more specifically in psychology and sociology, and is given a great deal of attention in social psychology...

, dream

Dream

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...

s and aspiration

Aspiration

Aspiration may refer to:In linguistics:*Aspirated consonant, a plosive pronounced with a strong burst of air*Debuccalization, the conversion of a consonant to [h] or [ʔ]*Voiceless glottal fricative In engine technology:...

s.http://www.falmeida.com/pdfs/danawyse_en.pdf The work also dissects aspects of human relationships such as trust, love

Love

Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...

, communication

Communication

Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...

, pleasure

Pleasure

Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...

 and power. Man’s utopic

Utopia

Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...

 quest for perfection

Perfection

Perfection is, broadly, a state of completeness and flawlessness.The term "perfection" is actually used to designate a range of diverse, if often kindred, concepts...

, achieved in instant time, is the underlying philosophy of Jesus Had A Sister Productions.http://www.paris-art.com/musee-art-moderne-contemporain/Dana%20Wyse.%20Jesus%20Had%20A%20Sister%20Productions/Dana%20Wyse.%20Jesus%20Had%20A%20Sister%20Productions/74.html Wyse incorporates advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 images from the 1960s into her work to underline the absurdity

Absurdity

An absurdity is a thing that is extremely unreasonable, so as to be foolish or not taken seriously, or the state of being so. "Absurd" is an adjective used to describe an absurdity, e.g., “this encyclopedia article is absurd”. It derives from the Latin absurdusm meaning "out of tune", hence...

 of these images as well as man’s lust for shopping

Shopping

Shopping is the examining of goods or services from retailers with the intent to purchase at that time. Shopping is an activity of selection and/or purchase. In some contexts it is considered a leisure activity as well as an economic one....

 and mass consumption.http://www.foutraque.com/inter.php?id=87

Wyse is the co-author of two books.

Biography

Global Feminisms: New Directions in Contemporary Art, eds. Maura Reilly and Linda Nochlin, Merrell, 2007. ISBN 9781858943909

Femmes artistes/artistes femmes : Paris, de 1880 à nos jours, Catherine Gonnard and Elisabth Lebovici, Hazan, 2007. ISBN 9782754102063

How to Turn Your Addiction to Prescription Drugs into a Successful Art Career, Dana Wyse, Elisabeth Lebovici, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Editions du Regard, 2007. ISPN 9782841051991

Dana Wyse : Jesus Had A Sister Productions 1996-2001, Elisabeth Lebovici, 2001.

Vancouver: A History in Photographs, Aynsley Vogel and Dana Wyse, Altitude Publishing, 1993. ISBN 9781551530765

External links

• Dana Wyse at Aeroplastics Gallery, Brussels