Meryl McMaster's Dreamscape

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Meryl McMaster, "Aphoristic Currents," 2013

chromogenic print, edition 2 of 5, Collection of John Cook

As an art student in Toronto, Meryl McMaster was too shy to ask friends to pose for her photography projects. So she started creating self-portraits with a decided embrace of the surreal. She quickly realized she had found her niche: “It kind of just went on from there and continued.”

The often-startling images of the artist wearing face paint and elaborate shaman-like costumes explore her mixed indigenous and European ancestry, her attachment to the land and her links to ancestral peoples as well as scenes from what she calls her own “dreamscape.” The result is a stunning body of work, especially for an artist not yet 30, and a touring exhibition, Confluence, which will properly introduce the Ottawa-based McMaster to Western Canadian audiences.

The show is at the Richmond Art Gallery in Greater Vancouver until March 19, after stops in Toronto and Ottawa, where the curator, Heather Anderson of the Carleton University Art Gallery, is based. Richmond is McMaster’s first solo show west of Ontario. Then, Confluence travels to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba in Brandon, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery in Alberta, and The Rooms in St. John’s, Nfld.

Confluence gathers two-dozen photographs from three series of work. The oldest series, In-Between Worlds, includes pieces that date back to 2010 during McMaster’s shy days at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Those images, plus the next series, Wanderings, are comprised of self-portraits portraying haunting characters adorned with such objects as pine cones, feathers and braided fabric. They look vaguely aboriginal from ancient days, but are really positioned in no specific time, place or ethnicity. Viewers must create their own backstories. Many images strike an ominous tone, yet are never too dark. Even heavily made-up and costumed, McMaster can’t hide an innocent, baby-faced look.

Meryl McMaster, "Secret Darkness of Birds," 2015

Meryl McMaster, "Sentience," 2010

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Meryl McMaster, "Ancestral 4," 2008

chromogenic print, edition 1 of 5, Courtesy of the artist and Katzman Contemporary

The third series, Ancestral, superimposes photographic images of the artist’s face or that of her father, Gerald McMaster, an artist and curator of Cree and Blackfoot heritage, onto vintage photographic portraits of indigenous people by the likes of Edward Curtis. Ancestral is a vehicle for McMaster to reclaim historical images of what was originally billed as a vanishing people.

Many of McMaster’s self-portraits are set beside bodies of water. The fascination with water began in her student days on a month-long canoe trip in northern Quebec. She encountered water in all its moods. “The whole experience really shaped how I think and who I am,” McMaster said in a recent interview. “You get to know water and know its ways. I think that always stayed with me.”

Meryl McMaster, "Consanguinity," 2010

Meryl McMaster, "Viage," 2010

Many images are also set in winter. McMaster is attracted to the “quietness” of winter scenes and the sense that everything is hibernating: “Life is kind of suspended under the snow.” But there are also “harsh” and “dangerous” aspects to winter that add a certain menace and urgency to her narratives. Shooting outdoors in winter can be troublesome, however. McMaster expects her next series will be mainly set in summer.

Meryl McMaster, "Time's Gravity," 2015

Meryl McMaster, "Dream Catcher," 2015

McMaster first came to national attention in 2012 when she literally became the face of the 40th anniversary of the Canada Council Art Bank. The federal institution had picked one work from each year in its collection to highlight for the anniversary. The 40th year was a self-portrait of McMaster dressed as Laura Secord, heroine of the War of 1812.

Then came positively reviewed solo exhibitions in Ottawa and Toronto, along with some in American locations, such as the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. Other honours included a month-long stay in Detroit courtesy of that city’s Canadian Residency program, and making the long list for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, a prestigious prize for artists under 40.

Nan Capogna is the curator at the Richmond Art Gallery stickhandling McMaster’s exhibition. “McMaster’s images are highly evocative and compelling,” says Capogna. “They provoke numerous questions as to possible readings of the narratives she has constructed as well as where they exist within the history of photographic portraiture, particularly representation of indigenous peoples. Through her images, McMaster takes us with her as she explores some of those potentially angst-ridden existential questions of identity and being. But she is gentle with us, and the journey is a poetic one.”

Modest and still somewhat shy, McMaster says her early success is a double-edged sword. She appreciates the accolades, but all that praise so early in her career has also created tension. “I think there’s always pressure on you to continue to be successful,” she says. “Sometimes that affects me and you get, not writer’s block, but artist’s block.”

Capogna, however, is optimistic that the high calibre of work by such a young artist indicates great things ahead. “I am heartened by it and look forward to seeing what she will make in years to come.”