Allyson Mitchell is a Toronto-based maximalist artist, working predominantly in sculpture, installation and film. Her practice melds feminism and pop culture to trouble contemporary representations of women, sexuality and the body largely through the use of reclaimed textile and abandoned craft. Throughout her career, Mitchell has critiqued socio-historical phobias of femininity, feminine bodies and colonial histories, as well as ventured into topics of consumption under capitalism, queer feelings, queer love, fat being, fatphobia, genital fears and cultural practices. Her work is rooted in a Deep Lez methodology, which merges lesbian feminism with contemporary queer politics. Mitchell is based in Toronto, where she is an assistant professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at York University. Early life and education She received her three degrees from York University: her B.A. in Women Studies and English (1995); her M.A. in Women Studies (1998); and her Ph.D. in Women Studies (2006). Mitchell's Ph.D. thesis constructed a feminist theory of body geography, looking at the ways in which our body image shifts in different contexts. Works In 1996, Mitchell cofounded the fat activist and performance art collective, Pretty Porky and Pissed Off with Ruby Rowan and Mariko Tamaki. In 2010, Mitchell cofounded Feminist Art Gallery with Deirdre Logue. For her work Kill Joy's Kastle, Mitchell created a lesbian feminist haunted house. She is represented by Katherine Mulherin Contemporary Art. Her works have exhibited in galleries and festivals across Canada, the US and Europe, including Tate Modern, the Textile Museum of Canada, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Andy Warhol Museum, Walker Art Center, The British Film Institute, Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives. Work as co-editor Ladies Sasquatch Mitchell’s Ladies Sasquatch is an ongoing project that has taken up various forms. It foregrounds six mythical “she-beast” sculptures, made of synthetic fur and colourful textiles and reaching heights of up to eleven feet. The fuzzy, humanoid creatures are depicted gathered around a campfire, positioned in unique poses, with hairy breasts, nipples and vulvas on prominent display. Each has been given a name by Mitchell, including Silverback, Tawny, Bunny, Oxana, Maxy and Midge. They are accompanied by a family of “familiars”: tiny, strange-looking mammals taxidermized in cotton-candy-pink fur. According to Mitchell, Lady Sasquatch is “your dream girl, only bigger and hairier- and she might eat you if you don’t look out!”. Indigenous