{"id":23533,"date":"2014-05-01T21:06:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T01:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=23533"},"modified":"2014-05-16T19:41:54","modified_gmt":"2014-05-16T23:41:54","slug":"gather-janet-macpherson-and-lindsay-montgomery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=23533","title":{"rendered":"Gather \/ Janet Macpherson and Lindsay Montgomery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with Lindsay Montgomery (L.M.)\u00a0and Janet Macpherson (J.M.) by Ella Gorevalov (E.G.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 29 – May 24, 2014<\/strong>
\nCraft Ontario Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Artists Janet Macpherson (left) and Lindsay Montgomery (right) at the Opening Reception. Courtesy of\u00a0Craft Ontario Gallery.<\/p>\n

E. G.:\u00a0How did the two of you come together to collaborate this gallery show?<\/span><\/p>\n

L. M.: Well Janet and I met when\u00a0we were both students at Sheridan College in the School of Craft and Design.<\/p>\n

J. M.: When I met Lindsay I think we were both drawn to the same themes in our work, mystical imagery, folklore, mythology, fantasy, early Christian iconography.<\/p>\n

E. G.: Your exhibition features a large variety of mediums. Can you talk a little about how you chose to use them the way you did?<\/span><\/p>\n

L. M.:\u00a0We both went off to grad school and did our MFAs and realized without really knowing it that we both started doing a lot of investigation of video. The use of video has been a way for both of us to bring different elements into our work to create\u00a0something that has movement and is able to lend itself better to story telling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Janet Macpherson and Lindsay Montgomery, Gather Video Still<\/em>, ceramic sculptures, puppets and mixed media, some sound effects. Courtesy of freesound.org.<\/p>\n

E.G.: Could you please tell us more about the videos?<\/span><\/p>\n

L.M.: We see the video as a narrative and poetic experience that is neither entirely abstract nor literal. It was created through the experiment of bringing our separate works together, placing them in different environments, and focusing on the performative possibilities of these objects. Concerns with performance and setting that run deep through both or our practices came through in this endeavor. Themes such as death, human manipulation and control of animals, are suggested through the movements of the puppets and their interactions with acquiescent animals, and short animations that appear to them as visions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span>Lindsay Montgomery, Grotto Puppet<\/em> (left), 2010, mixed media and earthenware, and Bat and Prophet Puppets<\/em> (right), 2010 and 2013, mixed media. Courtesy of\u00a0Craft Ontario Gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n

E.G.:\u00a0What are the defining themes you have running throughout?<\/span><\/p>\n

J. M.: What we have decided to do for this exhibition is to bring both of our work together but incorporate it into the same exhibition so that it is not a two-person show as much as it is a collaboration of our work together.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Janet Macpherson, Grotto Installation<\/em> (detail), ceramic sculptures and mixed media. Courtesy of\u00a0Craft Ontario Gallery.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lindsay Montgomery, Grotto Installation<\/em> (detail), 2014, ceramic sculptures and mixed media. Courtesy of\u00a0Craft Ontario Gallery.<\/p>\n

There is a definite relationship between the human manipulation of animals that we are both interested in and\u00a0is evident in the exhibition. There is also an idea of\u00a0a grotto;\u00a0a hidden place that is sacred and special and almost nature but is one step removed from nature. So there is this human constructed landscape that we made, that is, like everything else, manipulated by the human touch.\u00a0It is\u00a0made out of different construction materials and was built up during the week of installation. It\u00a0was an organic process where we\u00a0were in the gallery for the week before the show, building it, and inserting our objects into it. They are mainly ceramic objects which have been made individually in our studios then we tried to bridge them into one installation. Lindsay\u2019s objects are painted with bright maoilica colors. My ceramics are smaller scale porcelain animals. The cave like structures are built out of plasticine and plastic.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Janet Macpherson and Lindsay Montgomery, Grotto Installation with Bridge<\/em>, 2014, ceramic sculptures and mixed media. Front section by Lindsay Montgomery, bridge and back section by Janet Macpherson. Courtesy of\u00a0Craft Ontario Gallery.<\/p>\n

The grotto as the setting for the installation, came out of Lindsay’s\u00a0research into outsider art sites in the Midwestern United States, and\u00a0my affinity for early Christian iconography, the lives of saints and images from Medieval manuscripts. The mannerist garden of Bomarzo, or Park of the Monsters<\/em> with its monumental fantastical sculptures in Italy was also an inspiration. We were interested in creating a space that existed one step removed from nature, and a grotto with its cave-like formations created from natural elements, shaped by human hands, but still a little wild, seemed like the perfect site for our figures to mingle.<\/p>\n

L.M.: I think people who are coming to this gallery to view\u00a0 the exhibition will be challenged to stretch their definition of what they think of as craft.<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: March 29 – May 24, 2014, Craft Ontario Gallery, 990 Queen Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Mon – Sat 11 – 6 p.m. Lindsay Montgomery\u2019s work is carried at Craft Ontario’s retail location, Craft Ontario Shop, 118 Cumberland Street, Toronto.<\/p>\n

** On Friday, May 16, 4 p.m., there is a walk-through tour of the Gather exhibition at the Craft Ontario Gallery. Meet the makers Janet Macpherson and Lindsay Montgomery, find out more about their work in the exhibition, and learn about their processes and inspirations. Space is limited – please RSVP to gallery@craftontario.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 29 – May 24, 2014<\/p>\n

Craft Ontario Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n

people who are coming to this gallery to view this exhibition will be challenged to stretch their definition of what they think of as craft<\/p>\n

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