Jenny McMaster

Abound: Our MFA Show at the OAG

So after being shut down by omicron and then the freedom convoy our MFA Exhibition Abound finally opened at the Ottawa Art Gallery. Shortened due to the crazy times we live in, Feb 23rd to March 6th, the event fittingly embodies the series of pivots and truncations students and artists faced over the last couple of years. Virtual, flying by the seat of our pants, sometimes magnanimously accepting, other times loudly annoyed, compassionately graded, over worked, confused, but always adaptable, because we just needed to keep making art, for our school, for ourselves for everyone else.

Great round of applause and thanks to my class mates: Angelina Barruco, Natalie Bruvels, Peter Kohut, Erin Fyfe Donnelly, Laura Paulini, and in memoriam Lilly Koltun. I love you guys.

If you didn't get in to the gallery, check out the exhibition online on the OAG website. For more photos of my work specifically check out: Hare in Situ on my website 

and the article published in Apt 613 by Emmanuel Gringas

 

Hare in Situ at Theatre LabO

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my pre-thesis exhibition Hare in Situ at Ottawa U's Theatre LabO in the Ottawa Art Gallery complex. Its been an interesting challenge working in a large black box space, when I've been so accustomed to white gallery walls. I'd like to extend a huge thankyou to Visual Arts department techs Sasha Phipps and David McDougall as well as Theatre techs Liam and Abby for making things happen. 

Hare in Situ explores animality and animals particularly the hare. In tandem with my interest in animal studies and ecology, my work delves into concepts related to the bodily, the intuitive and the material. While the study of animality uncovers negative and precarious aspects of being a nonhuman, the production of my art has always encompassed the positive aspects of it as well, specifically a more expansive sense of identity.

The installation uses handmade paper, sculpture, animation, and sound to depict the hare’s habitat. I have assembled a thicket with branches constructed with papier-mache, gypsum strips and abaca pulp and furnished these tree limbs with raw hemp fibre which serves as foliage. I have used discarded bed sheets and other fabrics to create tree roots and wound hemp around picture wire to create springy tendrils. I have arranged, pulp-based hare and rabbit ears, with the distinct resemblance to funguses, on the floor and walls.

 The installation uses light, touch, and sound to create an immersive environment to provoke an immersive experience.  More photos to come soon!

 

Bozica Radjenovic's Flood Line at Karsh Masson

Visit The Flood Line at Karsh Masson, featuring the fascinating art work of Bozica Radjenovic. Bozica is a very talented sculptor adept with fibres, as well wood and bronze. The exhibition explores the theme of ecological and emotional overflow, evoking events that leave traces on our bodies and minds, just as high water does on our natural environment. I am honoured to have penned the exhibition text! 

The exhibition runs from July 29th to September 19th. I got the post pandemic thrill of visiting the opening last night and chatting with the artist. She will be giving tours August 5th between 2 and 3 pm. 

 

 

Autumn Updates: Awards and Publications!

This fall I was honoured by the SAW Award for New Works. A great pick me up during the pandemic! Sure wish I could spend time in person with the rest of the gang who received the award, so many interesting and talented people. I plan to use the funds and resources to film and perform my piece "Explaining Pictures to a Dead Beuys" a compassionate critique of the artist Joseph Beuys and his relationships with animals. I plan to access the SAW studios over the holidays. Hopefully I will be performing the piece in the spring in an outdoor context. 

In other news, my series Ruptured Planes is featured in this year's issue of Experiment-O, an art and poetry mag which is a publication of Angel House Press. This issue is dedicate to the fragile and the flawed, refreshing considering capitalist society would generally have us be bullet proof and flawless. Follow the link and check out the many writers and visual artists presented including contributors from Australia, Germany, the US, the UK and of course Canada. My thanks to editor Amanda Earl for asking me to participate!

 

 

EBA at Little Berlin or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

 

Me with Tea Cloud and So Below (Photo: Tavi Weisz)

This August a group from the Enriched Bread Artist Studios participated in an exhibition in Philadelphia. The show was hosted by a very cool artist run space called Little Berlin. Little Berlin (located in the Kensington area near Fishtown) is an exhibition space run by 11 artists who curate the space using a collaborative, do-it-yourself ethic. Individual members curate monthly exhibits in the main gallery space and members organize pop up exhibitions, poetry readings, performances and various community outreach events in the annex space. Little Berlin is also home to Philadelphia's largest zine library. Like the EBA Little Berlin is in a re-purposed building, this time the Viking textile mill. 

(Photo: Tavi Weisz)

EBA artists participating in the show included: Colette Greco-Riddle, Sayward Johnson, Gayle Kells, Juliana McDonald, myself, Valerie Noftle, Bozica Radjenovic, Mana Rouholamini, Carl Stewart, Svetalana Swinimer, Tavi Weisz, Joyce Westrop and, Yvonne Wiegers.

Yvonne and I decided to make the trip down for the opening. We drove drove interstate 81, along the Pennsylvania turnpike, and through the Lehigh Tunnel before arriving in the outskirts of Philly and then Kensington. We dropped off Yvonne's work at Little Berlin and then went for some hipster style cheese-steaks at restaurant called Martha.

Yvonne with her work (Photo Tavi Weisz)

I crashed that night in the lovely home artist Amanda Schneider. Saturday Yvonne and I spent a fun day seeing the sites in Old Town and encountering some key works of modernism at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Above Piccasso, Below Delaunay (In this case I found the frame more interesting)

Then we arrived back at Little Berlin for our vernissage where we were greeted by Tavi. It was exciting to talk with young members of the gallery scene about our work at the opening.

Tavi with his work

From left to Right Yvonne, Me, Angela Heaps, Amanda Schneider, Henry Gepfer 

The next day I visited the Rodin Museum where my parents went on romantic dates circa 1969. I also saw the folk art phenomenon that is Philadelphia's Magic Gardens which I highly recommend. All too soon I had to hop the train back to Ottawa. (Actually first to New York, then Montreal and then the bus to Ottawa then a taxi to Hull.)

Rodin's Gates of Hell

The Magic Gardens

On the weekend of the 25th Carl Stewart went down to Little Berlin for his performance which explored the compromises of relationships by referencing the domestic task of folding laundry. Being a textile artist Carl used the actions of tearing and weaving.

Carl Stewart's Performance Rent Sheet

This was also the occasion of a well attended closing party and BBQ in the courtyard.  

Photo: Carl Stewart

Thank you so much to the artists of Little Berlin especially Angela Heaps for organizing, Amanda Henry for hanging and billeting, and Henry Gepfer for hosting the vernissage. Thanks also to Tavi for connecting with the artists of Little Berlin and of course the City of Ottawa for helping to pay for the trip and shipping!

 

Installation shots featuring: Sayward, Carl, myself, and Bozica (Photo: Tavi Weisz)

Julie, Mana, Gayle  (Photo: Tavi Weisz)

 

Svetlana, Colette, Joyce  (Photo: Carl Stewart)