Maggie Boyd: Grapes

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Maggie Boyd has a clever exhibition concept. Her show, at Vancouver’s Franc Gallery until Feb. 23, is called Grapes. Each of her 22 earthenware vessels is titled as a numbered grape. Yet every work is deeply singular. Placed together they become a loose agglomeration, but never quite a bunch.

Boyd uses humour and irreverent visual puns as she decants humanity’s troubles into the age-old form of the vase, pulling from many ceramic traditions to critique politics, gender relations and contemporary dystopia. There’s a wry quality to her content, to be sure, but these sour grapes are rendered palatable by her playfulness.

In Grape 2, for instance, the vase offers a front page from the so-called Times with a banner headline that reads “Typhoon.” Below are images of wind-whipped trees, a staple of the wild-weather stories dominating the news as climate change tightens its global grip. Sticking out of the vase are fronds of desiccated greenery that etch a similar arc as the trees.

I find myself thinking of the images of U.S. President Donald Trump on a windy day, his long  comb-over forming that same arc. Typhoons and buffoons, mutual blowhards creating disaster? Perhaps I'm venturing too far down a whimsical branch. But then, on the same shelf, consider another piece, Grape 3. It looks like a rock, though it’s actually flatter, more a slab positioned atop an elegant base. Is it a sly reference to the newsmakers or the news consumers? Given Boyd's propensity to use mirrors, encouraging viewers to look back at themselves, it might be both. Touché.

Boyd’s work offers many fine moments. Flowers poke from the eyes of a face decorating one vase. Next to it is what Boyd, a Vancouver-based graduate of NSCAD University in Halifax, describes as a hand-job vase. It sports a clay hand wrapped around its neck. “The glaze is pouring out, creating a feeling like semen,” she says.

Other works take their inspiration from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a massive island of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean. Like their muse, these works feature a range of detritus. “It’s basically an imagined, post-decorative, post-apocalyptic setting that deals with how we would address our lives when we have to move to Garbage Island one day when all the water rises and we no longer can live,” says Boyd.

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Maggie Boyd, "Grape 16," "Grape 17," "Grape 18," "Grape 19," "Grape 20" and "Grape 21," 2018

Maggie Boyd, "Grape 16," "Grape 17," "Grape 18," "Grape 19," "Grape 20" and "Grape 21," 2018

earthenware ceramics, various dimensions

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Maggie Boyd, "Grape 16," 2018

Maggie Boyd, "Grape 16," 2018

earthenware ceramics, 18" x 10" x 10"

Some works have classical references. Grape 10, for example, shows a female nude holding her own severed head aloft in one hand. Given the history of the dismembered female body in classical sculpture, the work feels familiar. Yet the gesture is hard to categorize. Is she elevating her head? Reclaiming it? Tearing it off in frustration? Not sure quite how to read this piece? Me too.

Boyd’s work is rich because it rejects simple analyses, opening itself to multiple interpretations. She subverts classical tropes, challenges gender bias and deconstructs received knowledge. You can ponder her content, or simply enjoy the humour, the engaging colours and unusual forms. ■

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