A new event created by two feminist professors at Saint Mary’s University is being brought to life (and some versions of death) with the help of NSCAD.
A group of seven students and Leesa Hamilton, assistant professor of Textiles and Fashion, have been working since September to create bespoke costumes for Monster Fest on October 28, in time for Halloween.
Monster Fest is the brainchild of Dr. Michele Byers and Dr. Lindsay Macumber, faculty in SMU’s Women and Gender Studies department. Inspired and endorsed by the Festival of Monsters at the University of California, Santa Cruz, this week the pair is presenting a packed slate of lectures, events, keynotes, and panels centred on the idea of the construction of monsters and monstrosity.
Topics include Abjection and the Femme Body, De/Colonizing Monstrosity, and Gender & Cannibalism; panels about the Indigenous Canadian film Blood Quantum and Nia Dacosta’s Candyman remake; a 50th anniversary screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; a workshop about the dark romance genre; and a closing Monster Ball on Halloween.
‘It’s an anglerfish combined with a vagina’
Though there are many presenters on deck, as hosts Byers and Macumber felt they needed special horror-related looks for the festival, so they reached out to NSCAD. That’s when Hamilton assembled her fashion and textiles team. She turned the project into official school work so her students could receive credit.
“I don’t want to exploit students,” says Byers. “We can’t commission them as a job, so we decided to do it as a directed study.”
Byers will be sporting a cardboard and polymer clay mask inspired by vagina dentata—a folk tale in which the vagina contains teeth—created by students Lydia LeBlanc, Mia Murphy, and Glitch.
“It’s an anglerfish combined with a vagina,“ says LeBlanc. (An anglerfish is a deep-sea bottom dweller with a large mouth full of terrifying teeth and a natural overhead light.) “We made the clitoris the light…the idea of vaginal pleasure being a myth in the past, and literally highlighting that and making that a guiding light for the individual wearing the mask. And the anglerfish using it as a lure to prey. So the guiding light and the lure.”
She looks a bit grotesque, but her heart is not monstrous’
Undergrad Emily Buckland created costumes inspired by Alice in Wonderland and Florence Pugh’s May Day queen in Midsommar. Nadine Sures, a grad student and research assistant on the project, contributed a “monster clown” named Maya.
“She’s got a giant brain, so I crocheted these hyperbolic shapes that became her head. All white. She has a giant belly, also crocheted. I think she looks a bit grotesque, but her heart is not monstrous.”
The unorthodox student project has yielded results beyond expectation for the Monster Fest team, who put the event together in a scant six months.
“I’m blown away by the talent of the students and what they can dream up,” says Byers. ”When we met with the students they kept saying, ‘Thank you’ and we were like ‘No no, thank you.’ Just going around in a circle of thanks.”
Monster Fest runs October 28-31 at the Halifax Central Library and Saint Mary’s University. For the full schedule and to register, click here.