Slip-cast porcelain "Wrapped Coyote" by Janet Macpherson. Included in
A Canadian Bestiary, 2017 solo exhibition, The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto
Gardiner Museum Exhibition photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.
Janet Macpherson
Wrapping animal forms in damp porcelain sheets – binding, bandaging the figures, and contemplating the intentions of these gestures was inspired by visits to the Ohio State Agricultural Fair in Columbus, where farm animals were clothed in protective fabrics, tethered tightly to posts, awaiting exhibition and judging. I have begun assembling my own slip-cast menagerie, in which I play with forms of domestication, sanitation and restraint. Through the use of animal forms I explore ideas of repression, confinement, and torture, the animals becoming a metaphor for our relationships with others, and how we understand ourselves.
Janet Macpherson studied ceramics at Sheridan College, and earned her MFA at The Ohio State University. Janet has exhibited her work extensively in Canada and the United States, and was the 2013 recipient of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.
Janet was included in the exhibition and publication, The Book of Beasts: The Bestiary in the Medieval World, curated by Elizabeth Morrison, The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Her solo exhibition titled "Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary" was a response to Canada's Sesquicentennial and was commissioned and presented by the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto.
Janet has been an artist-in-residence in the Craft and Design studios at Harbourfront Centre, and at the Zentrum für Keramik in Berlin Germany. Janet lives and works in Hamilton.
