This Place of Departure
Pat McDermott
July 12 - August 8, 2008

wax relief, 2008

Pat McDermott’s wax relief’s deal with the discrepancy between what is seen and what is understood. The viewer thinks that she is looking at fabric, only to discover the fabric is actually wax, and contains objects that are real: human hair, needles, pool balls, etc. The work deals with the nature of perception, an index of reality but also an illusion and a suspension of reality. This place of departure develops mundane thoughts and concepts through connections with loss and being left behind, a snapshot of a presence that used to be.

Pat McDermott was born in 1962 in Belleville, Ontario. McDermott was educated at Queens, York and the University of Toronto, where he received degrees in Sociology, Fine Art and Education. McDermott currently resides in Kingston where he teaches Art at Frontenac Secondary School and lives with his partner Anne Gillis and their two children Dylan and Clare.