Eileen MacArthur: pieces missing
May 5 to June 5, 2005
In the exhibition pieces missing, Eileen MacArthur explored the process of image fragmentation and reconstruction with large scale, composite oil paintings. MacArthur uses film, advertising, postcards and found snapshots as portrait, 'stand-ins' for actual people that she has known. Her painted portraits are a result of the mixing of these composite images with memory and personal interpretation. MacArthur exploits the perceived implications of her fictionalised portraits by referencing conventional portraiture, landscape and still life painting. Her canvases are painted separately and often in segments and then recombined and adhered together onto single supports. The fragmentation and reconstruction of the images (and the canvases) encourages a perceptual shift from the familiar to the unfamiliar. MacArthur's paintings are extraordinary and conspicuous in their construction, resulting in richly textured patchwork compositions, that simultaneously conceal and reveal their meanings. MacArthur currently lives and works in Guelph.
Image: Untitiled, 2005, oil on canvas.