Tiziana La Melia's 'Kitten Healer Litter' at Galerie Anne Barrault

Tiziana La Melia's exhibition 'Kitten Healer Litter' at Galerie Anne Barrault in Paris explores Y2K aesthetics, family memory, and queer identity through video, drawing, sculpture, and installation. The centerpiece is her feature-length film 'The Simple Life: Country Mouse City Mouse Hamster,' inspired by the reality show starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. Shot on DV, the film follows characters Velours and Helles Bella in a surreal pastoral setting, juxtaposing rural life with digital-era pop culture. La Melia, born in Palermo in 1982 and based in Vancouver, draws on her Sicilian-Canadian heritage and childhood on Syilx/Okanagan territories. The exhibition includes heart-shaped cheese graters made with a Palermo artisan, repurposed ladles used to serve soup, and a customized advertising calendar. La Melia employs the 13th-century spolvero technique learned in Florence for storyboard-like drawings. The work critiques consumerism, productivity, and normative structures while celebrating chosen family and self-expression.