Hilary
Galbreaith

For several years, Hilary Galbreaith worked on a fiction entitled “Bug.” The story begins in the city of New New Orleans and focuses on a catastrophe affecting certain humans: an infection transforms them into humanoid insects. The plot evokes horror and sci-fi films, from “Starship Troopers“ to “District 9“ and B-movies, but evacuates the classic binary conception of “good versus evil.”

Three distinct bodies of work were imagined by the artist: “The Bureau,” a zine exploring the origins and the creation of a complex and absurd administration for this new marginal world; “Bug Eyes,” a video series featuring puppets in a reality show; and “Parade,” the last instalment, which mixed performances and films where actors interpreted mutants in everyday or festive situations.

In several cities, the mutant insects of “Parade” have grown to human size. Both comical and frightening, and now deprived of speech, they seek to recreate connection amongst themselves by communicating through gesture and movement, or (during performances) through electro-acoustic or musical sounds. Episodic in nature and with no fixed end, «Parade» takes on variable and evolving forms depending on its presentation venue, mixing installations, costumes, props and handmade instruments with videos and performances.

From 2020 to 2023, Hilary Galbreaith led collaborative projects with the experimental rock band TNHCH. TNHCH concerts are of variable geometry, depending on the members’ availability, and the music is almost always improvised.