Anna_J_McIntyre

I am a multidisciplinary artist with a practice combining sculpture, performance, micro-activism and relationalism. I work with multiple narratives simultaneously, investigating how people perceive, create and maintain their notions of self through behaviour and visual cues. I am very interested in the idea of adult play. Prior to my graduate studies I concentrated on storytelling through print media, text and installation. At Concordia I started incorporating live performance, kinetic sculpture, touch, light, sound and smell as I explored the ways in which people decipher experience. My work began to divide into 3 separate outputs: print, sculpture, visual acting. I began to research the circus in depth, viewing it as a metaphor for life as well as a fascinating, nomadic culture. I examined concepts of illusion and spectacle, the roles of the performer and observer, light and shadow, indications of power, the politics of silence, and how to make something from nothing as ways of understanding how society defines “normality”.

The efforts of my research culminated in my recent exhibition, The Circus & the Pimp’s Jalopy: Part II, a circus set within a shadowy scrim forest within a dilapidated warehouse space. The two hour spectacle consisted of 7 female performers, a robot and performing objects. The room smelt of popcorn and sweet pastries. The entire installation was both stage and view point. Audience members wandered through the space forced to make themselves comfortable on their own terms in an event with uncertain rules. The event oscillated between being both boring and mesmerizing and sought to intrigue viewers into a heightened sense of the present as they became conscious discerners of their immediate surroundings.
In all my work I have a preference for using materials with a sense of age and history. Quintessentially, I am a collector. I collect buttons, wood, books, paper, material, clothes and souvenir knick-knacks. I am very sentimental, scraps of paper instantly bring back old memories. Consequently, it is impossible for me to throw anything away. In order to get around this problem I decided to incorporate my bits-and-pieces collection into art works and so the dolls series was born. The doll forms are often inspired by people I know. Five dolls may be the same person, each doll depicting different aspects of their character. The creatures have a base of papier mache, and they are brought to life by moments like these: Once upon a time I worked as a video store clerk. Sometimes the customers would bring me presents. One day a man I barely knew came in and handed me a beautiful fruit wrapper he had saved from Morocco. It was such an accurate reading of my character and what I thought was beautiful. I was very touched. Over the years I would try and throw the wrapper out. I kept the paper for 5 years before I finally incorporated it onto the belly of a bull-like self-portrait with long limbs. And so the stories continue…

By being exacting in my material choice I feel I can subtly acknowledge disparate tangents of my history, and enable more complexity and layers. The materials in novel juxtaposition tally new equations. With more details gleaned from the greater culture the work becomes less obviously self-referential and generous to those who see it, allowing them a greater chance for inclusion and crafting their own relationships. I consider my work along similar lines of inquiry as that of Sophie Calle, Catherine Sullivan, Cindy Sherman, Alexander Calder and his experimental circus performance, Oskar Schlemmer and Papo Colo’s Trickster Theatre.