SO WHAT
Mary-Anne McTrowe
+15 Window Exhibition
June 3 to July 26, 2014
In collaboration with Sled Island, The New Gallery is pleased to present SO WHAT by Mary-Anne McTrowe in our +15 Window at the EPCOR Centre from June 3 to July 26.
As a sentiment, SO WHAT is out of place on the type of banner that usually conveys strictly positive or celebratory messages like CONGRATULATIONS, WELCOME BACK, or IT’S A GIRL. SO WHAT is anti-celebratory, negative; the petulant teen’s “who cares.” But sometimes SO WHAT is a challenge for elaboration: “how is your experience changing?” or “what is the impact this will have on the future?” In this way, the seemingly antagonistic SO WHAT can be seen as a desirable aggravation, much like the grain of sand in an oyster.
Biography
Mary-Anne McTrowe was born and raised in southern Alberta. She earned her BFA at the University of Lethbridge in 1998 and went on to pursue graduate studies at Concordia University in Montréal, receiving her MFA in studio art in 2001. Her work has spanned a number of different media, and her practice focuses on the question of how things that are familiar to us can be made unfamiliar; how a change in context can render something temporarily strange and perhaps even unrecognizable. Recent bodies of work include using crochet as a carrier of information, the crocheting of cozies for everyday objects, and performance and static work about the Sasquatch. McTrowe is a member of the art-ernative band The Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonoréalistes with Daniel Wong, was a founding member of Trapdoor Artist Run Centre, and currently works as a technician in the art department at the University of Lethbridge.
