Using art to explore new modes of thinking and storytelling

Image Arts (IMA) professor and alum Annie MacDonell sees her tremendous success as a catalyst to enact social and political change. Her most recent exhibit entitled The Beyond Within is currently on view at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, and questions the status quo of modern life while utilizing still and moving images alongside installations to reimagine a new future.

MacDonell graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Photography from the School of Image Arts at The Creative School (‘00). She completed her Master's at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains, in France. With a focus on moving and still photography, MacDonell's work addresses experiential and radical perspectives about life, politics and meaning-making.

Her work as a visual artist and filmmaker has received international recognition. She was longlisted for the Sobey Art Award in 2010, 2012 and 2016, and shortlisted for the Scotiabank Photography Prize in 2020. MacDonell’s project was featured at this year’s virtual RUBIX event which showcased her recent film, installation and photographic exhibitions.  

Art as a form of meaning-making

Curated by Crystal Mowry and Leila Timmins, The Beyond Within is a mid-career survey exhibition of photographs, films and installations produced by MacDonell over the last five years. Through the synergy of different mediums, the show ‘underpins feminist conceptions as a basis for political engagement with the world and proposes strategies for reorientation.’ The collection features two films made in collaboration with Paris-based artist Maïder Fortuné, OUTHERE and Communicating Vessels, and MacDonell's newest installation, Set and Setting, which explores the lengthy history of therapeutic psychedelic trials and the political potential in dissolving the ego by any means available.

Alongside her work as an artist, MacDonell teaches production and video courses at The Creative School, including Photography Senior Thesis (opens in new window) , Photography Production (opens in new window) , and Visual Studies II (opens in new window) . Her students play an integral role in her work, continuously informing her practice as an artist. "The time spent with students working through their images and ideas is always interesting and productive work," asserts MacDonell. "It allows me to keep my critical skills sharp and keeps me engaged with the way images and ideas are changing."

Employing radical modes of thinking to guide political action

One of MacDonell's motivations as an artist is to extend the boundaries of political action by investigating radical and lateral modes of thinking and storytelling. The voice-over in her video work “Set and Setting” asks: 'why is it easier to imagine the end of the world than it is to imagine the end of capitalism?’. This question informs the bulk of her work in the exhibit. It also acts as a central tenant in her reconceptualization of thinking and storytelling.

"In the world right now, we are caught in an inescapable loop of making the same mistakes over and over again," maintains MacDonell. "There seems to be a collective belief that we are unable to alter the course of events anymore. Radical and lateral thinking could help us to push beyond what currently seems possible, towards new ways of living and being together in the world."

In October, MacDonell's experiential and thought-provoking exhibit opened at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery and was digitally presented this January at RUBIX. The exhibition will travel across the country to galleries and museums in Vancouver, Calgary, Saskatoon, and Oshawa over the next year and a half. MacDonell's work in The Beyond Within will culminate in a monographic book that will be published later next year.

Interested in seeing how MacDonell extends the boundaries of political action through art? Get a glimpse into all of her latest films, exhibitions and projects at her website. (external link, opens in new window) 

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