Jenny McMaster

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!

 

 

Interview on "Can I Have a Word" CKCU 93.1 FM with Carla Parchelo

Listen to my radio interview with Carla Parchelo on "Can I Have a Word" CKCU 93.1 FM and get caught up with my most recent projects which combine performance with my handmade paper work. Over the past year I've been exploring the prospect of becoming animal, particularly becoming a hare. There are also some very nice music tracks on this episode including Bjork's "Nature is Ancient" which I'd never heard before. And I call myself a fan...

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)

 

 

 

A SAFE PLACE: by the Artist of PSO

I am very pleased to announce A Safe Place: A Travelling Exhibition by the Artists of PSO

In the exhibition entitled A Safe Place, the talented artists of the Psychiatric Survivors of Ottawa (PSO) have used sewing, painting, embroidery and collage to create house sculptures which have come together to create a portable neighbourhood. The participants have attempted to picture a space they would feel safe and happy, an environment they can ultimately take with them in their minds as they move from place to place. A safe place is also created through the assembly of people, working together towards a collective creative goal, who understand each other's challenges. The variety of artworks here is an expression of the variety of talents and stories present in PSO's peer support community. The artworks evolved over the course of a twelve week class.

TO SEE MORE IMAGES VISIT: https://jennymcmaster.typepad.com/photos/a_safe_place/

The artists are very pleased to exhibit their work in tandem with the PSO theatre group's production of The Lonely Adventures of Stigma. The theme of loneliness explored in this play has a strong connection with the subject matter we have tackled in A Safe Place.

Our exhibition will be shown at each location where the The Lonely Adventures of Stigma is performed. It will be available for viewing fifteen minutes before the show. See the dates below.

Wednesday, May 15th, 1pm Salus Ottawa- 2000 Scott Street: Show time: 2pm

Wednesday, May 22nd, Centretown Community Health Centre, 420 Cooper st. Show time: 4pm

Tuesday, May 28th, Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre-Overbrook Room 225 Donald St unit 120, Show time: 6:30pm

Friday, May 31st, Viscount Alexander Public School 55 Mann Ave, Hosted by Sandy Hill CHC, Show time: 6:30pm

Wednesday, June 5th,  Russell Gardens Lounge, 2100 Russell Rd, Show time: 2pm

Friday, June 7th, 211 Bronson Ave, Bronson Centre, Mac Hall, 6:45pm, Show time: 7pm

Project funded by the Ontario Arts Council. We would also like to thank Eco-Equitable and Bill Staubi for the donation of supplies. A big thank you to co-teachers Christine Mockett and Bozica Radjenovic and volunteer Katrina McMaster.

 

 

 

Rewind: Topologies of Time at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

Coming up this October at MVTM my long awaited show with Noelle Hamlyn exploring the history of Almonte and the textile industry. 

The Exhibition runs from October 10 to December 16, 2017.  Vernissage: Saturday October 14 from 2 PM to 4 PM 

 I would like to gratefully acknowledge the support I received from the Ontario Arts Council in the form of an exhibition assistance grant. 

My works are drawn from archival maps in the Museum's collection. The sources for this series range from a simple line map, drawn in 1829, to Google Earth's checkered grid of photographs. It was my challenge in interpreting these maps to give equal consideration to historical narrative and aesthetics. As an artist I was concerned with both the maps' use value and their largely irrelevant beauty. Both the names of the water power users clustered about the falls and the sinuous curves of the river were of interest. My works range from fairly faithful copies of the originals, to playful artistic interpretations.

Noelle Hamyln of Toronto is showcasing a collection of machinery frozen in time using salt crystallization. Her work highlights the political import of cloth and the social role of women and children 150 years ago. 

Both artists will give a performance during the vernissage. Both pay respect to the workers of the Rosamond Wool Mill where the Textile Museum is housed. My own performance will involve stitching the names of the mill workers on paper tiles and a conversation with visitors about the memories of the family names deeply interwoven into the fabric of Almonte.