Silhouette:  Andy Section
Vol. 75, Issue 5, September 23^rd, 2004

Cars, Pencil Crayons, and Art in Transit
by Emily Stillwell

My appreciation of art hadn’t really ventured into the contemporary realm, but I’ve begun to discover that contemporary art is really creative, and even fun. Art can seduce you, and Hamilton’s own Transit Gallery is a great place to begin a journey into the realm of Contemporary art.

Transit Gallery’s current exhibition is a showcase of innovative and intriguing art by two Canadians. Todd Munro’s collection "Pursuits" contains 20 prints and monoprints that explore the modern world of cars and technology. Andrew McPhail’s collection "Drawing" explores the automobile as well, but his pencil crayon on Mylar also explores a variety of objects often found in his work.

Munro, a Montreal based lithographer and artist, uses his printmaking skills to unify the world of ancient and modern into works of art. The process of lithography itself accomplishes a similar task through the idea of fusing an older technique with constant reinvention. He explains how the car has currently become the dominant element in his inspiration: "My work is pretty much influenced by my surrounding...the automobile theme has been around for about four years now. Since living in large cities these things are pretty omnipresent. I don’t know if they are inspirations or more of an odd obsession."

His love and loathing of cars is fused together wonderfully in his compositions, harmonizing the world of nature with the mechanical. In Mechanics of Happiness, two cars passing each other turns into a story when it becomes evident that the rear of one car is smiling, presumably at the other car. The theme of emotional intelligence is carried through into the piece Premonition. Three small crashed cars seem to be the "premonition" for the three larger ones in mid-crash, suggesting our lack of control over our mechanical creations.

His compositional style is reminiscent of the cave drawings on rock walls, and reinforces a connection between modern cars and their animalistic nature. The presentation resembles the tales of successfully hunted beasts told by our prehistoric ancestors. We were once proud of taming, hunting, and providing food, and now often duplicate that pride in our relationships to material possessions. It seems only fitting that we immortalize cars and give these "hunted" objects a story through art.

The unrefined shapes and simplicity of the cars is complimented by using basic charcoal colours such as natural browns, reds, blues, and oranges. The prehistoric look of his pieces somehow manages to suggest the dark and dirty side of modernity: pollution. The cars in their animalistic nature then seem to take on the role of beasts hunting humans. Munro confesses, "I ride a bike in Montreal so sometimes cars also have a negative effect on me: they are seen as hazards to be avoided."

Munro is definitely inspired by modern technology, but the theme of cars is also drawn from childhood memories. "My early childhood of course has a lot to do with my work," he says. "When I remember things it’s usually in relation with a car, such as a trip looking out the backseat window watching the moon follow along the telephone wires."

Andrew McPhail’s pencil crayon on Mylar pieces have a vibrant and playful style. Based in Toronto, he has a completely different tone, look, and medium than Munro, but his compositions are equally thought provoking. "I have been drawing since 1985," confesses McPhail. "My drawing has always been a process of collecting, a daily sort of journal, autobiographical and reflective. Through this activity I have gained a visual vocabulary, a language of objects and colors."

McPhail uses a set body of images in this collection of his work. Chairs, cars, skulls, stars, are laid out in a repetitive, methodical manner as social commentary, especially in Work Mandala, Chatroom, and Chair Spiral. The use of pencil crayons suggests drawing as a pastime. "My work refers to the childhood pass-time of coloring-in," he explains, "often borrowing drawn material from other sources or from my own drawing history." Bright, vibrant colours such as pink, purple, and yellow, and obvious pencil crayon lines evoke childhood memories of colouring suggest art class, art instruction, and learning to colour between the lines.

However, beyond the youthful pastime lies commentary on current culture and society. "My attention is promiscuous," confesses McPhail. "I draw what I like, things that I notice or am thinking about. Though my drawings are colorful and often playful or humorous, they are about serious subjects." In the piece Chatroom empty chairs are circling with no one actually sitting in them, implying the absence and decline of humanity in the age of technology. It’s fascinating that now millions of people from all over the world are chatting together, but McPhail’s Chatroom suggests that there is a hollowness inherent in this activity. People are talking, but they never see or touch each other.

Dead Matisse presents a bright yellow skull with a background of flora. The childlike palette of colours reinvents something dangerous and creepy into something happy: ’60s hippy acid trip happy. This diffusion of violent energy is amusing and creative, but it also suggests our desensitization as a society towards violence.

In Traffic, the circle of cars represents both chaos and total order. The ball of cars definitely smacks of being stuck in traffic and having no where to go, whereas the orderly nature of the placement of the cars suggests our very mechanical, uniform, conformist and ordered world. Again, the rainbow colours of the cars places the compositional emphasis on the realm of innocence, non- offensiveness, and freedom.

I find Work Mandala, in which a circle of hamsters are all facing and moving in the same direction, to be one of the most striking pieces in McPhail’s collection. The word Mandala comes from Sanskrit word mandalam, and means circle. A Mandala is used in Buddhism and Hinduism in meditation, while in Jungian psychology it represents the self and harmony within the individual. The idea of a Work Manadala is quite a provocative statement on our current culture and our obsession with the material world. Read in Jungian terms, McPhail implies that our preoccupation with the external consumer world means we are nothing more than hamsters going around the commercial wheel. We gain nothing important, and really never actually go anywhere; neither mentally, spiritually, or physically.

Both exhibits are worth checking out: Munro and McPhail have produced incredibly creative and interesting collections. The owners of the gallery, Priti Kohli and David Brace, are more than happy to answer your questions. Kohli emphasized the importance of going to exhibits, because if only the artists go, the audience is incredibly restricted. Art is meant to be seen, appreciated and criticized! We use our interpretive skills in our everyday lives, so it follows that we can extend those skills to more creative avenues too. Remember, we are the art consumers and producers of tomorrow, so why not educate ourselves now?

Transit Gallery is located at 230 Locke Street South.

Check out the website at www.transitgallery.ca for hours of operation hours and information on the artists. Todd Munro and Andrew McPhail’s exhibits will be available until September 26.