Lucky Charms | Erin McPhee | April 3 - 30
“I have always had an admiration for things that are well made, or not even well made. What you have to make in order to live.”
– Margaret Kilgallen, interviewed for the Hammer Museum in 1999.
In Lucky Charms Erin McPhee has created a collection of woodcut wall hangings drawing inspiration from her appreciation of folk art and traditional craft disciplines. McPhee’s work is informed by a keen observation of her everyday surroundings. Specifically, she’s drawn inspiration from one of her neighbours, who maintains a rotating display of seasonal woodcuts on his front lawn, and from a lifetime of watching her mom work as a scenic artist. McPhee engages a graphic visual style to depict her own personal language of folk symbols — ranging from portraits of women and houses with puffing chimneys, to weeping flowers, and the flame from a match or candle. The exhibit is the artists’ own lawn display — a small window into the life and personality of the maker, designed to elicit surprise and delight from those who view it. In opting to display her work in a gallery setting the artist is reflecting on the questions “How do we ascribe value, meaning, and legitimacy to public displays of work?” and “How does our interpretation of this work change based on who is making it, and under what context it is viewed?”
Artist Statement
Erin McPhee is a Hamilton-based artist whose work is concerned with the emotional interior of women and queer people, including herself and others. She works in a variety of mediums—including wooden sculpture, quilting, and ceramics. The final forms are bold, graphic patterns and simplistic illustrated motifs, but the process of creating them is often time-consuming and laborious. Through her work she makes explicit the implicit; made objects are not only functional, but can be an expression of love, care, and community.
McPhee’s interest in art as a vehicle for community care is built upon her previous body of work. In 2020 she co-created Comfort & Care, a zine exploring these themes within the context of quarantine, and distributed for free by mail. In 2019 she created Quilts for Friends, an ongoing art project in which she requested used linens from friends and acquaintances and transformed them into quilts. The project was an exercise in creating craft for community, to express care, and in making art for exchange rather than profit. McPhee also served as creative director and designer for a series of publications On Healing (2018), On Pleasure (2019), On Mothering (2019), and On Friendship (2019), from publisher With/out Pretend. The series featured the work of women and non-binary writers and artists around these vulnerable and intimate themes. McPhee holds a BAA in Illustration from Sheridan College. Her debut solo show Lucky Charms was originally displayed at Remote Gallery in September 2022.