Michael Davey:
Short Life, Long Branch
Unveiling Wednesday, September 23, 7 pm
With the installation of Michael Davey’s Short Life, Long Branch, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre achieved its 35th permanently sited outdoor work for the sculpture park. Davey is a prominent Toronto-based artist who works primarily in cast materials and video. The sculpture is composed of two bronze-cast branches mounted to the exterior, south-facing wall of the gallery. Perched atop the branches are bronze-cast skeletons in ritualistic postures. The branches span two windows and can be seen from the gallery’s main public stairwell and from the plaza in the sculpture park. The sculpture tells the story of Davey’s near-death experience when he survived a drowning by holding onto a long thin branch, the very branch that he cast in the making of Short Life, Long Branch.
The acquisition of Short Life, Long Branch for the sculpture park was made possible through the generosity of the artist and the sponsorship of Nancy Sullivan, who served as Chair of our Board of Trustees for twelve years and is now an Honorary Trustee member.
The unveiling of Davey’s outdoor sculpture coincided with a concurrent exhibition at the MSAC featuring pieces selected from Davey’s lucite series titled Overly Charmed (1993–1994) and All Souls Passage (1999–2001).
Michael Davey is an Associate Professor in the Visual Arts department at York University. His work has been collected by public and private institutions in Canada, the USA, and overseas.
Public Talk with Michael Davey
Monday, September 28 at 2:30 PM