George Slays the Dragon 2016

Curator: This is Benoit Maire’s mixed media installation, "George Slays the Dragon," created in 2016. Editor: It gives me this unsettling calm. Is that a contradiction? The textures and tones are almost soothing, but the arrangement has this underlying sense of disruption. Curator: Disruption in the traditional representation, perhaps. Benoit often plays with recontextualizing familiar myths. Here, the legend of St. George is deconstructed into these individual components. We see abstract paintings, seemingly unrelated objects... Is that a very forlorn looking apple sitting on top of that antiquated workbench? Editor: Oh yes, I see the apple. Almost feels like an offering. So, what dragons is George slaying now, in 2016? Are we talking about systems of power, capitalism, the patriarchy? Curator: Could be anything, really. Benoit often avoids a singular, didactic interpretation. The beauty is in how these separate elements create new dialogues, new narratives within the viewer. It's a bit like Cubism, where you see all angles at once, creating a new reality. Editor: But there is also a clear privilege in being able to interpret so freely. I’m just thinking, who gets to slay dragons? And who is perpetually cast as the dragon in these modern morality plays? Is this offering an acknowledgement of sorts? Curator: Hmm. Interesting perspective. It reminds me of some of his other works where he questions the very nature of the art object, it’s purpose in contemporary culture. Perhaps he’s suggesting we rethink these narratives entirely, question their traditional structures, and see the power dynamics at play. Editor: Yeah, power is everywhere here: The sheer mass of the workbench. The sterile white cube. It's all speaking to an entrenched structure of art itself, who decides what it all means. It is just so interesting to contemplate these works as fragments of old stories meeting new possibilities of meaning-making, both for better and worse. Curator: Precisely! Each element becomes a starting point for personal reflection. Editor: And perhaps prompts us to pick a side, pick up our swords—or apples—and make a change.