Mary Medusa (excerpt).

This performance is one of Dempsey and Millan's "Archetype Performances" in which familiar characters examine the lessons and images from the stories, myths and codes that have shaped us. Dempsey and Millan subvert these icons' accepted meanings and retell their tales from a contemporary female perspective. This project began as a short performance piece in which the Medusa icon was reconceived as a successful, Margaret Thatcher-era businesswoman. It then evolved into a longer, multi-media performance exploring modern female icons and questions of power ("Who has power? Do I have power? Where can I get some?").

Collaborators since 1989, Shawna Dempsey and Lorri Millan are among Canada's best-known performance artists. They were catapulted into the international spotlight in their 20s with the performance and film We're Talking Vulva. Since then, their live work and videos have been exhibited in diverse venues as far-ranging as women's centers in Sri Lanka to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This Winnipeg-based duo has created installations (such as Archaeology and You for the Royal Ontario Museum), public art pieces (such as One Gay City, the subject of a Manitoba Human Rights Commission challenge) and books (such as Bedtime Stories for the Edge of the World, Arbeiter Ring Press). To most, however, they are known simply as the Lesbian Rangers of Lesbian National Parks and Services. Their humorous, feminist and provocative work has been acclaimed as "one of the high-points of contemporary Canadian artistic production" (Border Crossings Magazine). Dempsey and Millan are the recipients of many awards, most proudly the Canadian Museums Association Award for Outstanding Publication and the Manitoba Arts Council Special Prize for Innovation and Excellence.