Imago [xii] knots and figures <>
Artist
Mary Scott
(Canadian, born 1948)
Date1989
Mediumsilk, embroidery floss, bias tape, vinyl letters
Dimensions260.9 x 342.6 x 19 cm
Credit LineThe Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern. Purchased 1991.
Object number1991.14.a-c
Classificationsmixed media
On View
Not on viewMary Scott’s work exists in conversation with literature and theory, incorporating text and references to theoretical frameworks. Like Scott, a number of feminist artists and writers were influenced by psychoanalytic theory, in particular that of Jacques Lacan, attempting to situate his theory in relation to their own lived experience. Here, Scott references Schema R, a representation of Sigmund Freud’s Oedipus Complex that Lacan uses to theorize a key element of a child’s development as an individual, distinct from its parents.
Scott was an instructor of painting and drawing at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary for thirty years. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders and co-directors of Stride Gallery and director of dL Gallery in Calgary. Scott states: “My practice is painting, but a lot (of my work) has never had a dot of paint on it. People will say, ‘Oh my god, how can you call this painting? It doesn’t have paint on it?’ And I’ll say, ‘What do you think it’s talking to?’ It’s talking to that discourse in history and is arguing with that history.”
Scott was an instructor of painting and drawing at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary for thirty years. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders and co-directors of Stride Gallery and director of dL Gallery in Calgary. Scott states: “My practice is painting, but a lot (of my work) has never had a dot of paint on it. People will say, ‘Oh my god, how can you call this painting? It doesn’t have paint on it?’ And I’ll say, ‘What do you think it’s talking to?’ It’s talking to that discourse in history and is arguing with that history.”
