Myfanwy Macleod

Myfanwy MacLeod is best known for her irreverent artworks that often explore the overlapping and intersecting of pop culture, folklore, traditions, and histories. Her practice examines how perceptions of “high” and “low” culture are interpreted through themes of gender, privilege and value and ranges from museum and gallery exhibitions through to celebrated permanent and temporary works in the public realm. Her interest in how an image or object can be transformed to change its meaning through shifts in scale or materiality for example, and importantly the context of indoors or out playing a specific role within her deliberations is the starting point for her first solo exhibition in the UK. MacLeod examines this dialogue as a way to visually communicate the shift of ideas that occurs through process, materiality, scale and context. To this end and as a means to illustrate this proposition, a selection of recent works is presented alongside maquettes and visual documentation for public commissions.

Central to the exhibition is a sequence of framed watercolours that were used in 2018 as the basis for a public artwork, Neighbours, a series of large-scale posters displayed at twenty sites around the City of Vancouver corresponding with two major events in Canada. Firstly, in 2018 we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act established between Canada and the US. One of the most successful conservation laws in North American history is now currently under review by American Congress. Coinciding with the anniversary of this major achievement by Canada in protecting species and its consequent positive environmental impact, was the International Ornithological Congress (founded in 1884) which takes place every four years and in 2018 convened in Vancouver from August 19-26. The second event was the celebrated re-installation of MacLeod’s acclaimed commission The Birds (2010), a large-scale public sculpture of two house sparrows located in the Olympic Plaza, Vancouver.

Sharing content therefore and immediately following on from this global environmental conference as context, MacLeod’s twelve watercolour drawings depict various birds protected by the treaty that annually migrate from all over the world to live and breed in Canada and incorporates different species gathered together into one diverse flock. Not unlike the “impossible bouquet''—a concept that emerged in Dutch still life painting in the seventeenth century where flowers were visually brought together from different seasons and geographic regions—this assemblage of birds is made up of a varied, polyglot group. Those depicted include House Sparrow, Common Nightingale, Northern Goshawk, Sandhill Crane, Northern Raven, and the Blue Footed Booby, amongst others. Through such a considered selection, MacLeod represents the national birds from countries which make up Canadian communities thus mirroring the physical and cultural identities of the inhabitants of the country.

Alongside these original watercolours is documentation of the large-scale photographic public works. These posters combine the original, delicate drawings of the birds with a Latin text of their species and popular name thereby evoking the layout of typical ornithological text books and field guides. A particular visual reference is the 1912 book, Color Key to North American Birds, one of the first publications to rely on a visual approach to identification, rather than the lengthy, technical and difficult to use taxonomies, thereby opening out and making information more accessible to the many. MacLeod’s work embodies this same impulse.

To further elaborate the process inherent in MacLeod’s practice and the move between gallery and public space, other works presented include the small-scale sculptural maquette of The Birds and the original sculpture—a small wooden log and initial plaster casts taken from it—that were used to form the basis for Wood for the People (2002), a permanent installation of 230 cast concrete logs outside the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver.

Acclaimed Canadian author Margaret Atwood was the keynote speaker at the opening of the International Ornithological Congress. Prompted by Atwood’s conference speech where she pointed out that although cats are the major killers of migratory songbirds in North America, she was interested in creating a positive conversation around cats and birds that “didn’t completely annoy cat people,” MacLeod produced a wall-hanging woven felt piece Purr, Purr, Purr (2018). Characteristically this embodies the underlying playful humour present in her work while encompassing her ongoing interest in more profound environmental concerns.

Curated by Nigel Prince

### Biography

Myfanwy MacLeod lives and works in Vancouver. A recipient of the VIVA Award (1999) presented by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts, Vancouver, she has had solo exhibitions at Or Gallery, Vancouver (2015); Vancouver Art Gallery (2014); Museum London, Ontario (2013); Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver (2012) and Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2006). Selected group exhibitions include The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver (2017); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2013); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2012); MASS MoCA, North Adams (2012); Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto (2008); Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (2006); Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany (2004); The Power Plant, Toronto (2002); Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2002); Gasworks, London (2002); Canadian Pavilion, Melbourne International Biennial (1999) and Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (1998). She is represented by Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver.

Two small scale metal birds sit on top of a plinth. The bird in the foreground is dark brown and in clear focus, the one in the background a lighter shade of brown and blurred.

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Twelve framed small scale paintings hang in a vertical line on a gallery wall. The watercolours depict various migratory birds. To the left, a pile of plaster cast wooden logs sit on the floor.

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A view of Myfanwy MacLeod’s exhibition in a gallery. On the left wall, brown fabric with red shapes hangs off a curtain pole. On the right side,  a pile of plaster cast wooden logs sit on the floor.

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Neighbours

Myfanwy MacLeod

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Although one of the most successful conservation laws in North American history, it is now currently under threat by American Congress. Coinciding with this anniversary is the re-installation of Macleod’s seminal public work The Birds at Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza. CAG has developed an associated work with MacLeod that is timely within this context.

*Neighbours* is a series of twenty posters displayed at various transit shelters throughout the city of Vancouver and will occur alongside the International Ornithological Congress which takes place in the city from August 19 to 26, 2018. Incorporating drawn images of birds of different species gathered together into one flock as notional surrogates for the varied population of peoples that make up the city, this assemblage of birds will be made up of a diverse, polyglot group. Not unlike the “impossible bouquet” — a concept that emerged in Dutch still life painting in the seventeenth century, which was an artificial fantasy of flowers that could never bloom naturally in the same season and geographic region— the birds depicted at once mirror the cultural identities of the inhabitants of this city of Vancouver from different parts of the world while speaking to the democratic nature of the public transit system which brings together people from all walks of life.

Curated by Nigel Prince

This project is produced by the Contemporary Art Gallery in partnership with the City of Vancouver Public Art Program. 

### Biography 

Myfanwy MacLeod (b. 1961, London, Canada) is best known for her irreverent artworks that draw upon conceptual and minimalist themes, often exploring the overlapping and intersecting of pop culture, art history and folk traditions. Articulated through themes of fantasy, humour and allusions to forbidden desires, MacLeod draws parallels between how art and mass media are created, circulated and consumed. Her works, which range from photography and painting to large-scale installations and sculpture, examine how perceptions of “high” and “low” culture are interpreted through themes of gender, privilege and value. MacLeod was a recipient of the VIVA Award (1999) presented by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts, Vancouver. She has had solo exhibitions at Or Gallery, Vancouver (2015); Vancouver Art Gallery (2014); Museum London, Ontario (2013); Presentation House: Gallery, North Vancouver (2012); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2006). Selected group exhibitions include Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver (2017); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2013); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2012); MASS MoCA, North Adams (2012); Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto (2008); Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston (2006); Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany (2004); The Power Plant, Toronto (2002); Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2002); Gasworks, London (2002); Canadian Pavilion, Melbourne International Biennial (1999); Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (1998). She is represented by Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver.


ProgramGuideSummer2018.pdf

A watercolour print of the head of an ocellated turkey on a plain oof-white coloured paper. Below the image is text reading “OCELLATED TURKEY (Meleagris ocellata).”

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An image of a bus shelter with a person biking past and another sitting in the shelter. A large-scale watercolour print of a Scarlet Ibis is installed in the shelter, in place of an advertisement. 

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An image of a bus shelter with a large-scale watercolour print of a Blue Footed Booby. The print is installed where an advertisement would normally be displayed. 

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An image of a bus shelter with a large-scale watercolour print of a Red Footed Booby. The print is installed where an advertisement would normally be displayed.

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A detail image of a bus shelter with a large-scale watercolour print of a Common Nightingale. The print is installed where an advertisement would normally be displayed. 

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An image of a bus shelter with a large-scale watercolour print of a Northern Goshawk. The print is installed where an advertisement would normally be displayed.  

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An image of a bus shelter with a large-scale watercolour print of a Calliope Hummingbird. The print is installed where an advertisement would normally be displayed.

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*Keep the IS in FEMINISM* is a collection of new Feminist slogans commissioned for the Contemporary Art Gallery’s street front vitrines. For this project we invited prominent feminist artists along with emerging artists both female and male to “reinvent the ‘f’ word: feminism,” a directive taken from the renowned New York artist and activist collective Guerilla Girls.

Faith Ringold’s “Woman, Freedom, Now” from 1971 still has a resonant tone, but its sense of urgency has waned. We wanted a new round of slogans to capture that original urgency by inflecting the very notion of Feminism back into a contemporary conversation. It’s not only that women are under represented in politics and over represented as objects, it is that women, young and old, no longer identify themselves as feminists. Even with the best of intentions there has been a slow fading of “feminists” as we watch them slide into the history books.

In the last two years there has been an active looking back to feminist art practices of the 1970s. Two prominent references include the traveling block buster *WACK: Art and Feminist Revolution*, which was at the Vancouver Art Gallery. WACK elicited numerous responses from local artists and galleries such as Centre A’s *TentEvent: Generating Exchange* and Artspeak’s *Persistence: An Archive of Feminist Practices*. Also, Frieze magazine’s 2007 feminist issue gave a detailed look at historical feminist work as well as featured new activist practices. Renowned art critic Lucy Lippard declared at  *The Feminist Futures* conference at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2007 that “we’ll be post-feminists when our goals have been met, and not before.” The return of Feminist discourse to the contemporary art table is not a surprise: the time is ripe to pay new attention to this now forty year old practice, to rejuvenate the terms of feminism to better understand what it has effectively achieved and lay out what still needs to be done.

The title of the exhibition was taken from the list of new slogans and is by Winnipeg-based writer, psychoanalyst and performer Jeanne Randolph. Sixteen slogans were displayed over two months. From November 21 to December 21, 2008 we featured slogans by Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Hadley + Maxwell, Randy Lee Cutler, Kelly Mark, Micah Lexier, Myfanwy Macleod, Isabelle Pauwels, Jeanne Randolph, and Martha Wilson, and from December 22, 2008 to January 18, 2009 we featured slogans by Kate Davis, Dave Dyment, Kristina Podesva, FASTWÜRMS, Kelly Mark, Jeanne Randolph, and Elizabeth Zvonar.


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Two large fliers are installed in the CAG’s window spaces. The flier on the left mimics CAG’s circular-shaped logo. It says FAG, Feminist Art Gallery. The other one is also a text-based work.  

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Three large fliers are installed in the CAG’s window spaces. They are all text-based works showing slogans such as “Pheminism is Phat.” All the walls behind those windows are pink. 

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This photograph depicts one of the CAG window spaces. Behind a glass window on a pink wall, a large white filter is mounted. The flier says FAG, Feminist Art Gallery in black block fonts. 

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Kate Davis, Dave Dyment, Emily Vey Duke and Cooper Battersby, Hadley + Maxwell, FASTWÜRMS, Randy Lee Cutler, Kelly Mark, Micah Lexier, Myfanwy Macleod, Isabelle Pauwels, Kristina Podesva, Jeanne Randolph, Martha Wilson, Elizabeth Zvonar

Keep the IS in FEMINISM

Myfanwy Macleod continues to distinguish herself through a diverse body of work marked by her wry sense of humour. Her layered referencing of literature and popular culture, and idiosyncratic use of materials are featured in *Where I Lived, and What I Lived For*. For this work Macleod draws on such diverse sources as Scottish folklore, drug culture and vernacular representations of the otherworldly. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau's autobiographical account of his stay at Walden Pond, Macleod used her three month residency at Glenfiddich Distilleries in the remote regions of Northern Scotland as a means to reflect on the anxieties associated with the nature of economy. As part of this new work Macleod will exhibit her first large-scale series of photographs, along with drawings of marijuana grow-ops, and an organic sculptural installation. In combination these works recount a haunted narrative of abandonment, paranoia, decay, and self-mockery.

Myfanwy Macleod's exhibition is sponsored by Glenfiddich Distilleries.

### Biography

Myfanwy MacLeod was born in London, Ontario in 1961. She studied at Concordia University in Montreal and obtained an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver in 1995. She continues to live and work in Vancouver. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally. In 1999, she was awarded the VIVA award from the Doris and Jack Shadbolt Foundation. That same year, she also represented Canada at the Melbourne Biennale in Australia. Most recently, she was included in the exhibitions *Strips and Characters*, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany and *re(framed) locations, dis(covered) desires: invading the personal and erasing communication errors*, Laznia/Bathaus Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk Poland. She is represented by the Catriona Jefferies Gallery, Vancouver where she recently exhibited the sound installation *Don’t Stop Dreaming.*

Essay: "New Icons of the Pastoral," Jenifer Papararo

 A closeup of a circular mirror mounted on a white wall. The reflection in the mirror shows the corner of a gallery, with several orange drawings in white frames.

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In a gallery there are 5 large photos, and a sculpture on a plinth. The photos show green hills, a door and a tub, and the sculpture beside it, which is a floral sheet over a figure with eye holes.

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In a gallery, there is a sculpture of a ghost-like figure with a floral sheet, displayed on a plinth. On the next wall, there are 5 large framed photos, showing fragments of worn-down buildings. 

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Three visible walls in a gallery. On two walls, there are large colour photos in wood frames. In front of the other wall is a large sculpture of a figure covered in a white sheet, resting on a plinth.

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Orange drawings in white frames mounted on one wall of a gallery. On the perpendicular wall, a circular mirror reflects more of these drawings. There is a large white rug on the floor in the space.

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Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

This catalogue, published in 2006 by the Contemporary Art Gallery, documents Myfanwy MacLeod’s first institutional solo exhibition,  *Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,* at the Contemporary Art Gallery, January 20 – February 26, 2006. The publication includes essays by Francis McKee, An Empire of Ruins and Jenifer Papararo, New Icons of the Pastoral and an interview with the artist and Connie Butler.

*Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,* was sponsored in part by Glenfiddoch Distilleries.

Myfanwy Macleod

Exhibitions

Elsewhere

Publications & Editions