Andrew MacDonald @ XPACE Cultural Centre — Toronto

“Static and Loss” til Feb 6

Andrew MacDonald’s sculpture enticed me with its Seventies’ rec-room comic sensibility. 

Mike Kelley comes to mind.  In the nineties, I fell oddly in love with Kelley’s filthy afghan rugs that lay on MoMA’s gallery floor mostly because it was so obnoxious, but also because the work was relatable, emotional and had deep resonance.  Although, McDonald doesn’t have the same motivations for his work, McDonald’s sculptures have a bit of Kelley in them.

The homemade toy motif and the knitting are similar.   But where Kelley’s knits and stuffed bunnies were pre-loved, McDonald’s sculptures are clean and a bit less familiar.  His representations of familiar objects are either too large or just too wierd a thing for a child to cuddle: like Black Animal Head, his wall mounted deer head covered in black knit, or Sleep, a fire hydrant napping on his knit pillow. The larger quasi-human, Face Plant, is a knit tube with a leg jutting out the side and a head that looks like a hammer lying face down. 

There is something essentially awkward about all McDonald’s sculptures. Where Kelley seeks ways to make us uncomfortable, McDonald’s work seems to be trying to reassure us with the levity of humor and his choice of materials.  They want to be loved now and the something pathetic in them tugs at our sympathies.