14th of 15 works found
Cordials
Title
Cordials
Artist
MacLeod, Myfanwy
Date
2018
Medium
steel
aluminum
Type
sculpture
Further Information
0x7c7ba29c4968fb6f!8m2!3d49.228779!4d-123.0013109
Accession Number
NA
Location
4688 Kingsway, Burnaby, BC
Category
Private Development Public Art
Collection
Public Art
Lat/Long
49.226334,-123.003820
View in Google Maps
http://www.google.com/maps?q=49.226334,-123.003820
Shopping malls are a 'dream-world'. Like their predecessors, the shopping arcades and department stores of the 19th century, they represent an idealized city, where streets are always lit, clean and where everything is readily available. They are and were, a promenade space, a place of visual enjoyment and entertainment. Cordials is a series of sculptures that transport us back to the moment in time in which the shopping mall came into existence. Based on old-fashioned Victorian illustrations, they uncover a parallel universe in which the present-day coexists with the past, to produce a dreamlike effect through the dislocation of time and space. The cast of characters for this work includes an octopus, a gentleman Dandy, a dog, a melon and a ladies shoe. Not unlike a Surrealist collage, the work heightens the theatricality of the site, which resembles a stage set, setting into motion encounters between a series of strange objects that have nothing to link them, in a setting that by all appearances does not fit them. The sculptures act out to passers-by, a fantastic drama involving gastronomical delights, fashionable clothing, elegantly dressed dandies and the like, turning the plaza at Station Square's busy south entrance, into a halluncinatory landscape. The sculptures resemble traditional Monopoly metal game tokens to further reinforce the playful and game-like quality of the work. None of the sculptures are life-size, their scale as unlikely as their pairing (unless you are in a department store). The size and scale of the works enhance their incongruity, creating both a mental and physical displacement.
Myfanwy MacLeod received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Concordia University (Montreal) in 1990 and an M.F.A. from the University of British Columbia in 1995. She has held teaching appointments at the University of British Columbia, Emily Carr University and the University of Western Ontario. MacLeod has exhibited her work throughout Canada, Australia, the United States and Europe. Her work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and in private Canadian collections. She is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver. MacLeod uses humor, satire, allusions to pop culture, and often references various folklore traditions in her work. She takes interest in how an image or object can be transformed to change its meaning. Since the 1990s, MacLeod has become known for creating art that extends across, and links together, high culture with mass entertainment. In recent work, MacLeod directs focus towards how popular culture has portrayed masculinity through the lens of modernist art history. Artistic mediums that MacLeod works in are sculpture, drawing, painting, and photography, performance video, and sound installation.