Proudly presented by Brigitte Mulholland,
With Wit We Rise: The Fabulous Rebellion of the F.A.G. is the first solo show in Paris by Sean Fader. Equal parts queer revolution, campy space opera, and mythic archive, Fader uses razor-sharp satire and fastidious historical research to tell the story of an idyllic, entirely queer planet that is invaded by the Cheezmalites - a plague of orange dust spores that, instead of killing the hosts that inhale them, convert them into believing fascist and puritanical ideologies. The revolution of the F.A.G. consists of a dazzling intergalactic resistance group that fights against the tyranny of its colonizers with humor, strategy, and shade.
Through large-scale photographs and sculptural relics, Fader’s protagonists – Barbara the Warrior Princess; Claude Cahun, General of the Pink Pony Army; the resurrected Chevalier d’Éon; The Mommy Joan; The Daddy of the Dunes; The Daughter of Tides – wage a fabulous rebellion against the empire of Covfefe, a grotesque embodiment of cheeto-dusted toxic masculinity and authoritarian power. The resulting photographic tableaux fuse Enlightenment portraiture with sci-fi spectacle; drag pageantry with state propaganda. Every gesture is both a joke and an indictment – and a reminder that humor has always been a powerful queer weapon.