McMaster artist makes a case for small things
John Ford's latest exhibition, 'House not a Home', is on now at the McMaster Museum of Art.
A city, a home, an individual: each are the sum of their parts and the significance of each tiny piece is what fascinates artist John W. Ford, an assistant professor of art at McMaster University.
“House not a Home,” a solo show of his recent work, opens at the Museum of Art this week.
The exhibition presents three large house-shaped glass cases, each containing architectural structures and found objects. The assemblages are at once sentimental and unsettling. The many small objects under glass – a discarded lighter, photograph, clock-face, old shoe, toy trains and figurines – seem to be pieces of a larger story.
Ford wants us to consider these small things and speculate.
“If we gain an understanding of our relationship to small things,” says Ford, “we may gain in our understanding of being human.”
“As an archaeologist examines a potsherd to gain insight into the individuals or groups who created the original pot, or as the paleontologist studies a fossil to comprehend ancient life in its context, my interest is to examine and present small objects for their potential to evoke aesthetic, intellectual, and/or emotional responses in the viewer.”
House not a Home runs until March 28.
