The Prophets: Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens

This book focuses on Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens’ seminal work The Prophets (2013–2015), a delicate hand-made collection of 412 small, whimsical sculptures made from everyday materials that renders economic graphs into makeshift models. In this work, the artists explore what it means to move from a material world of entangled, interacting agents to a world of mathematical modelling and graphical abstraction. The Prophets cuts across a wide range of historical and contemporary topics of interest to economists such as labour, consumption, production, taxes, savings, investments, credit and so on, to constitute a diagrammatology of economic thought. With essays by Sven Lütticken, Harro Maas, Marina Roy, and Jakub Zdebik and Foreword by Peggy Gale.

“To our shame, The Prophets has been truly prophetic, and Ibghy and Lemmens have quietly been pointing out the path we have been taking all these years. As they wrote in “Our Latest Greatest Hope” for the catalogue for L’avenir: (looking forward), “To cast the economy as a realm of human agency, it will need to be re-politicized. [. . .] Instead of going further, we need to go in another direction. Away from production, investment and cost calculation. Then again, if profaning our economy proves too difficult . . .” There is always a choice.” – Peggy Gale

Richard Ibghy & Marilou Lemmens’ collaborative practice adopts diverse strategies and formats, including the realization of sculptures, videos, installations, public artworks, works on paper, and artist books. Since 2002 they have examined the history of science and other forms of knowledge, including the language of economy, the magic of statistics, the capacity for models to impact the future, the aesthetics of data visualization, and the design of laboratory experiments. More recently, their work seeks to expand concepts of hospitality, care, and interspecies communication.

Their recent solo exhibitions include Jane Lombard Gallery (New York); Guido Molinari Foundation (Montreal); Ulrich Museum of Art (Wichita, Kansas); Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, Nebraska); Grantham Foundation for the Arts and the Environment (Saint-Edmond-de-Grantham, Quebec); VOLT, Visningsrommet USF Gallery (Bergen, Norway); Audain Gallery (Vancouver); Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario); Owens Art Gallery (Sackville, New Brunswick); Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Montreal); International Studio & Curatorial Program (New York); Esker Foundation (Calgary); and Monte Vista Projects (Los Angeles).

Ibghy and Lemmens’ work has been shown in the following biennials and triennials: Triennale Banlieue !, (Canada); 9th National Biennial of Contemporary Sculpture (Canada); 1st Fiskars Biennale (Finland); 2nd OFF-Biennale (Hungary); XIII Bienal de Cuenca (Ecuador); 14th Istanbul Biennial (Hungary); La Biennale de Montréal (Canada); Manif d’art 7: Quebec City Biennial (Canada); and Sharjah Biennial 10 (United Arab Emirates).

Richard Ibghy studied philosophy at Concordia University and completed an MBA at l’École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC), both in Montreal. Before turning to art, he worked for a firm that specialized in applied economics. Marilou Lemmens graduated in photography from Concordia University and holds an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. They live in Durham-Sud, Quebec.