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| Installation details, 1998, at the Walker Art Center. |
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“Untitled (drawings)”
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The diaristic clusters
of drawings, photos, and
signs
that McGee places in old thrift store frames and arranges on the
walls of his installations give one the feeling of reading a visual
journal, one in which all the pages are visible at once, and undetermined
by the traditional narrative set by the linear passage of time.
And, in fact, the source of inspiration for these assemblages of
framed images occurred while on a trip to South America. On a residency
in S‹o Paulo, Brazil, in 1993, McGee had the chance to travel to
the north. Stopping in a small town called Sao Cristovao, near Aracaju,
he met a local resident who offered to show him around. He found
himself in an old church filled with thousands of carvings made
by individuals who had painted or carved a personal inscription
on each of them. One wall contained clusters of small framed images
holding drawings of people, places, cars. He learned that once a
year people made pilgrimages to this church and left these items
behind. Moved by the pureness and directness he found imbued in
these offerings, he decided to begin
framing
the accumulation of drawings he had been making for years and hanging
them in groups on the walls of his studio. These assemblages of
framed sketches of the haphazard details of life, drawn on whatever
was available at the time - newsprint, magazine images, even
music notation paper - began finding their way into his museum
and gallery installations. Fragmented and yet fundamental, these
groupings of framed drawings reflect the accumulative (and sweet)
nature of urban, contemporary life. |
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