Teenage DNA (2001)

medium: paper collage, metal (framed and matted in flat black wood frames with single diamond glare-free glass)
dimensions: overall dimensions variable; 8" x 10" each individual panel
pricing: the 53 units in this series are for sale as a singular work; for pricing, please enquire here

Teenage DNA is a 53 image project comprised of small, single-panel collage meta-comics (one work on each Monday generated for the entire year of 2001) exploring life and death, emotionally exaggerated states, comic violence, and issues of human intimacy.

Surreal, obscure narrative scenes are created exploring relationships between figures and/or figurative stand-ins as they relate to objects, weapons, their surroundings, and other off-scene characters (of which the viewer him/herself may be included). Semi-poetic, semi-trash statements are forced from each central character's mouth using the conventional comic motif of the "word bubble", which also has a deep-rooted history as a critical tool used by many pop artists. It should be noted that for this project, all the word bubbles used in Laliberte's narratives have been decontextualized, directly pulled from badly-written linear narratives presented in mainstream comics, and reinserted into this more abstract and enduring art-comic world.

When constructing each collage, Laliberte locates / creates a background setting first, then a character-type is set in place, the details of the scene are further developed, and finally the most appropriate (or sometimes, the most inappropriate) word bubble is put into place. In terms of presentation, note that the actual collage works are constructed onto the interiors of discarded 4x5 Polaroid film packets (Laliberte spent a few years assisting a number of commercial photographers in Toronto in the mid-90's, and throughout that time collected these small throwaway metal boxes for use on some future project) the window of which effectively acts as the "comic panel"; these panels are in turn specially mounted in a unique design onto a black matt and presented as framed works in an 8" x 10" format.

image: Installation views at Common Ground, Windsor (2002)

The entire TEENAGE DNA project is presented within the gallery as a singular work, each piece mounted in a grid pattern of 4 or 5 works high (depending on number of Mondays in corresponding month) by 12 works (months) long, with a spacial demarcation every 3 months (according to seasons), a kind of visual calendar documenting the timeline by which the singular panels have been created.