dc3 Art Project is delighted to present Lethbridge-based artist Cindy Baker’s All Things to All Men (and Women). Inspired by an acquaintance’s assertion that the artist’s small group of friends represented all things to all men (and, because some of them were queer, women), this work attempts to represent, in underwear, every possible object of desire. In doing so, Baker’s goal was, in fact, not to complete an exhaustive catalogue of all potentially desirable people, but instead to uncover her own limitations. By creating one of everything she could imagine, what the audience could more clearly see was everything that they could imagine that she did not. By visually delineating the bias and limitations in the artist’s own desires, this work uncovers and articulates Baker’s own beliefs about the politics of desire, gender, social constructs of body image and what kinds of desire are socially acceptable.

Cindy Baker is an interdisciplinary and performance artist whose work is informed by a fierce commitment to ethical community engagement and critical social inquiry. Drawing from queer theory, gender culture, fat activism and art theory, Baker’s research-based practice moves fluently between the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Baker considers context her primary medium, and works with diverse materials and techniques from the low-craft (such as latch-hooking) to digital fabrication and performance, emphasizing the theoretical, conceptual and ephemeral aspects of her work.

Cindy Baker completed her MFA at the University of Lethbridge in 2014, and she continues to live and work in Lethbridge, AB, Canada.