Name/Title
Gut Jacket IIEntry/Object ID
2014.06.01Description
Liz Magor (b.1948, Winnipeg, Manitoba) is one of Canada’s most influential Canadian sculpture artists. She attended the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the Parsons School of Design in New York City, and the Vancouver School of Art (now the Emily Carr University of Art + Design). Magor subsequently served as an educator at the Ontario College of Art and Design before taking up a position as an associate professor in the Visual Arts department at Emily Carr University.
Throughout her career, Magor has worked primarily in sculpture and installation using repurposed materials, like blankets or shoe boxes, as well as developing her own moulds and casts to create hyperrealistic sculptures of everyday objects out of rubber and polymerized gypsum. The artist views material culture as an important part of both personal and collective identity. From cigarettes to chairs, the humble and unassuming objects serve as physical representations of culture and heritage and speak to the emotional and psychological relationships we have with them. They also raise concerns about overconsumption and decay. Magor's sculptures address the innate ability of ordinary things to influence our purchase, use, and disposal of them. Similarly, the realness of her objects calls into question the notion of authenticity and value as her works carry the power of the objects that she imitates despite being fake.
Gut Jackets are a series of glassine paper and wire sculptures made to replicate traditional Inuit anorak made of whale or seal intestines and sinew. Magor’s use of material brings out an inherent irony between form, function, and meaning. Unlike the original garments, the artist’s creations are not waterproof or warm. They are not comfortable or protective. Instead, they are fragile and unable to be worn. The Gut Jackets resemble the form of the highly practical anorak but unlike their name, they are neither made of guts nor are they jackets. To the Inuit, clothing plays a significant role in keeping Inuit cultural values and knowledge alive. It both sustains and expresses Inuit identity. Magor's fakes highlight the complex bodily relationship between Inuit culture and anorak by reducing it to an unusable aesthetic which is seen and not worn.
Liz Magor lives and works in Vancouver. Her works have been featured internationally. Magor has been recognized with civic, national, and international awards. In 2001, awarded the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. In Vancouver, she was recognized with the sixth annual Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts in 2009. In 2014, she was the recipient of the Gershon Iskowitz Prize, awarded by the Art Gallery of Ontario with a solo exhibition. In 2019, she was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.Artwork Details
Medium
glacine paper with wireDimensions
Height
81.3 cmWidth
91.52 cmDepth
23.2 cm