Meryl McMaster, There Once Was A Song — Stéphanie Hornstein
Ciel variable 118 - EXHIBITING PHOTOGRAPHY | Exhibition reviews
Authors: Stéphanie Hornstein | Artists: Meryl McMaster
In the exhibition that Meryl McMaster organized during a residency during which she worked with the McCord Museum collection, she explored human beings’ paradoxical relationship with nature. To the birds under glass bell jars conserved by the museum, McMaster responded with works that, in Stéphanie Hornstein’s view, portray struggle and suffering related to the Dutch traditional vanitas style. Although the exhibition embraces “the transience of all lifeforms,” as Hornstein describes it, McMaster’s work is not pessimistic in tone. “Death, McMaster insists, is a natural, if disconcerting, process and instead of denying it – say, by sticking stuffed birds in bell jars – we would do well to learn from life’s cycles.”
