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BIO

Born in 1961, Andrew McPhail hails from Calgary, Alberta. Focusing on drawing throughout his school career, he eventually graduating from York University in 1987 with a Masters degree in visual arts. He has been drawing seriously since then, and has shown in galleries in Canada and the United States. He currently lives in Hamilton and is working on some sculptural projects.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My usual medium is drawing. I don’t usually do three dimensional works but about two years ago I started making these band aid covered objects. At first I was just wrapping objects in band-aids, a tedious and compulsive task. More lately I’ve been making shapes with the band-aids that are more organic and less identifiable and installing them in mounds and piles.

They bring up a lot of issues for me, about healing and hurt, and the kind of obsessive hypochondria that I sometimes get, living with HIV, particularly around blood-work time. There’s a kind of escalating attention to my body that I get when my blood cells are being counted. Every slight symptom is magnified into a more serious condition; minor skin irritations acquire a more threatening presence. Making the flesh like surface of the bandaid forms also evokes issues of contact, about touch and protection. The labour intensive wrapping of the bandaids consumes precious and limited time. What is safe and how long have we got?