This sub-series consists of video components, masters, source tapes and resource material used in the piece “Cornelia Lumsden, Parts I and II” as well as textual and audio recordings. The premise for the piece is as follows: Part I – Her Room in Paris: Cornelia Lumsden is a little-known but brilliant Canadian writer who lived in Paris between the two world wars and wrote a controversial novel, The Alleged Grace of Fat People, in 1934. Her mysterious life and disappearance are recounted through the eyes of a friend, a rival, an expert and a CBC reporter, all played by Frenkel. Tim Whitten plays a member of the audience, the friend’s confidant and Lumsden’s lover. Each of their characters bears witness to a different truth regarding the writer’s work and fate; Part II – And Now the Truth (A Parenthesis): An unexpected confrontation during Frenkel’s research into the Cornelia Lumsden mystery occurs when Frenkel meets the “real” Lumsden. During a lecture Frenkel presents in Montreal on the subject of “Art and Artifice”, a woman in the audience claiming to be the missing novelist accosts her and demands to know “By what right are you using my name in your art?” The video explores the consequences of this surprising turn of events. Part I of this piece (as an “artwork”) has been purchased by the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario.
