STUFF: Ten Things Sally McKay Owns and Loves

by Sally McKay on April 17, 2013 STUFF

[Editor’s note: Are you having trouble understanding artists through their art? Understand them through their STUFF instead. Art history never elucidates the importance of the artist’s dual role as creator and person who owns STUFF, even though STUFF is important: it’s what accumulates when you make decisions. Owning someone’s STUFF helps you channel their spirit and personal brand. This is our tribute to STUFF. From books, to art works, to phony iPads, these lists will contain both the common and the strange. This week we bring you an exciting list from artist and curator from Sally McKay!]

1

Art Theory Made Me Cry

A gut wrenching and hilarious DIY art book by Lisa Soutter that I bought at Printed Matter a very, very long time ago when I was an undergrad art student going through my own roller coaster of identity-crisis/awakening to conceptual art theory.

2

The Good Book

Daniel Olson excerpted the italicized words from the King James Bible and re-situated them in a high-end, perfect-bound, hard-cover art book, with one of those bound-in ribbon bookmarks, that reads like this, only longer: “Was it was were land land it was and is and was it was he made it was that it was it was own is there is I have given it was.” That’s an excerpt from the chapter on the Book of Genesis.

3

Royal Road Test


An artists’ book by Ed Ruscha, with Mason Williams and Patrick Blackwell, Royal Road Test shows that technology is not just about machines, but modes of engagment with tools. Skip “Culture and Technology 101” and flip through this art book instead.

4

Road Test


Pretty similar to #3. An artists’ book by Corinne Carlson, Marla Hlady, and Karen Henderson, Road Test shows technology is not just about machines, but gendered modes of engagment with tools. Skip “Culture and Technology 101/Queer Theory” and flip through this art book instead.

5

Lisa Neighbour’s blade prints


Neighbour’s knife blades engraved with famous last words act as a reminder that facing mortality can be sort of…um, fun…well, sublime at least…and also sometimes funny. Mine is from Pancho Villa and it says, “Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”

6

Lorna Mills’ old-school bling


Yes, I own an original, hand-made painting by the internationally renowned GIF-artist Lorna Mills, a glittery depiction of costume jewellery rendered by hand, in paint, on a rather heavy panel that requires specialized hardware to install. It’s mine, and you can’t have it.

7

Lisa Myers’ print of kippered snacks


The artist/curator/teacher Lisa Myers gave me a gorgeous print of hands opening a tin of kippered snacks (objects we sometimes temporarily own, but always love).

8

Leiflet’s original pencil drawing of a GIF by Lorna Mills


Lorna made a GIF for the Sheroes 11: Dusty Springfield, and Lieflet made this work as part of an ongoing series of online pencil drawings.

9

Andrew J. Paterson’s latest DVD


I own copies of a number of videos by the inimitable video and performance artist Andrew J. Paterson, each of which I adore because the man is brilliant.

10

A piece of brick from Von Bark


On our second date, by random coincidence, my betrothed and I exchanged pieces of brick at a Super 8 film festival in Toronto.

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