Andrew McPhail: Prick @ Centre [3]

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Andrew McPhail is an artist that I have been watching for a few years. He draws, he paints, and he creates installations using the humblest of materials: pins, facial tissues, and band-aids. Prick is a piece at Centre [3] for Print and Media Arts (formerly known as The Print Studio) on James Street North in Hamilton and is part of a broader exhibition, Qualia, or the Feel of Steel, curated by Ingrid Mayrhofer, that explores the imprint of steel on Hamilton. At the opening, Prick garnered a lot of attention: we all had to touch it... and we did. By chance, I ran into Andrew another day when I came back to photograph his piece, without the crowds of people swarming the chair and foot stool. He said that he started with the middle of the foot stool where the pins are very dense, and as he worked, he realized that he would have to space them apart a bit more in order to finish the piece in time for the show.

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Prick appeals to my textile background. I love the repetition, accumulation, and tactile qualities of the piece. Andrew cleverly illustrates the relationship between steel and textiles. When I normally think of steel, I think of ugly factories belching plumes of steam and smoke, massive steel coils on flatbed trucks, and steel beams used in construction. All my associations are of steel's large scale and danger and pollution and ugliness. Every day I stitch using needle and thread. Every day I used a thin sharp shard of steel to make my work. Prick reminds me that steel is as much small, friendly, daily, and domestic as it is dangerous, large, and remote.

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Another interesting connection that Andrew makes with Prick is that although Hamilton is known as "Steeltown," it was once a textile manufacturing city too. 

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Read Ingrid Mayrhofer's statement about Qualia, or the Feel of Steel here and her statement about Andrew McPhail's piece, Prick, here. The exhibition runs from July 7 to August 18, 2012.