Individuals: Visual Artists: Sally McKay LePage

Artist's Statement

The status of objects:

I take digital photographs of everyday objects, ordinary and unremarkable objects that are practical, domestic and wholly forgettable if not for the functions they perform. Surrounded by potential subject matter I choose household objects that suggest to me a worth that is far more engaging than that which the subjects intrinsically convey. Framed up-close, digitally altered and produced as large format prints these objects denote significance far more notable than either their purpose or the task they perform. They are signs of a cultural consciousness which in many ways define how and to what our society assigns value.

It’s draining

The kitchen sink is arguably the most loaded symbol of domesticity. Who hasn’t heard the cliché “chained to the kitchen sink” or at least felt its significance. This series is a reflection of the time spent hovered over a sink watching the water drain. The series suggests that what might at first seem tedious and rather unremarkable is now and has the potential to be truly wondrous.

Bio

Sally was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and immigrated to Canada with her family in 1967. After exploring various kinds of creative media throughout early adulthood, Sally discovered the digital camera. With its digital darkroom, the camera provided the freedom Sally needed to develop her thoughts pertaining to the treatment of photography with text, and the meaning conveyed by the coupling. She came to materialize this concept relatively recently.

At York University Sally was introduced to theoretical photography: photography as a judicious endeavour, a process that required thought, purpose and meaning. She credits her professor, Tim Whiten, with her desire to study semiotics, realizing the fundamental connection between signs and symbols, language and meaning. The objects she photographs are cultivated signs. Her work is a logical study of that relationship.

In the years that immediately followed University, Sally was at home caring for her young family. It was during this time that she began to work on “It’s draining” a series of large format giclée prints along with linked-modular prints mounted behind glass and bound together with metal hooks hung from the ceiling. Currently, Sally lives and works in Cobourg, Ontario and is happy to be producing work that is critical in theory and mindful of the aesthetic, well constructed and engaging.

Education:

Bachelor of Fine Art, York University, Toronto, Ontario, 1994, Visual Arts major
Diploma in Graphic Design, George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario, 1989

Email:
Website: www.poshit.ca/Art-Photography.html