PRIVATE PAGE featuring recent video and performance artworks
*Additional works can be found on this website via the links above.
Spirit
high definition video • 2013
Total running time, 12 mins, 30 secs
***PASSWORD "spirit"
Description:
A line of fog creeps across still wintry landscapes, suggesting a haunting presence.
Filmed in residence at Glenfiddich, Scotland.
Valley of the Deer
2012-2013
Project includes:
~Three Channel Video Installation, 21:35 minutes, 2013
~Single BluRay Video, 48:30 minutes, 2012
~Installation Wall Drawings, dimensions variable
~Drawings on Paper, 119" wide X 29.5" high AND 103" X 29.5"
~24 Interactive Photographs, which trigger augmented reality videos on mobile devices
~24 Picture Postcards, which trigger augmented reality videos on mobile devices
Description:
In Scotland, I cast local residents in this video artwork, creating costumes and masks
in response to the setting, traditional highland dress, and oral folklore - both real and imagined.
The haunting romanticism of the landscape figures prominently as the camera discovers fairy knolls,
fog, majestic views, moving shadows, crystals breaking from rock, rainbows, live animals like reindeer
and owls, and masked actors. Magical realism and live action suggest that this valley has hidden tales.
Masked characters figure prominently in horror and science fiction - at once anonymous and secret,
uncanny and hybrid; ghostly and terrifying, yet disarmingly naive.
Video and drawings were produced in residence at the Glenfiddich International Artist's Residency in Dufftown, Scotland, with the assistace of many individuals, especially Andy Fairgrieve. Augmented reality components were supported by Turbulence.org and the New York State Council on the Arts
Three Channel Video 21:35 minutes, 2013
(Click here for single
channel version, drawings, and interactive images)
Documentation:
Three Channel Video Layout (in full):
Mockup one
Mockup two
Installation view one
Installation view two
Something Wicked (This Way Comes)
high definition video • 2012
Total running time, 6 mins, 25 secs
***PASSWORD "wickedfull"
Description:
Festival flags, strung in the wind from a town's stone clocktower suggest a foreboding presence.
Something Wicked (This Way Comes) was created in residence at Glenfiddich Distillery, Scotland.
A Prairie Horror
high definition video • December 2011
Total running time, 13 mins, 28 secs
***PASSWORD "Prairiefull"
Description:
A little house on the prairie is overrun with zombies. Shot in rural Manitoba and featuring a cast of local actors,
the narrative is minimal and the focus is the chase, the ambush and the feast. A single victim remains standing.
A Prairie Horror was created in residence at Gallery One One One, at The University of Manitoba School of Art. Curated by Cliff Eyland.
Hunger
3-channel high definition video installation • 2011
Total running time of 3 channels played sequentially, 6 mins, 27 secs
(Single channel version, for Electric Speed exhibition):
***PASSWORD "hungerfull"
Description:
The artist inserts her image digitally into television and film scenes from Twilight (New Moon), True Blood, and Being Human.
As the (replaced) ingénue hopeful of shared immortality, she is locked in endless staring contests with Edward, Bill, and Mitchell -
the leading male vampires from these series who share brooding good looks, apparent youth, advanced vampire years, immortality's
curse, abstinence from blood and in some cases sex, and an ability to pass as mortal. These are the new breed vampires of our
dreams - insatiable, beautiful, charming, yet dangerous. Separate hungers unite them with their mortal prey. Time is suspended
in the staring contests which no one wins and no one loses.
In installation three larger than life projections play simultaneously, forcing the viewer to either shift their gaze between screens
constantly in order to catch a blink; or to simply indulge in an infinite loop.
Hunger is a commission of Revised Projects and the New Forms Media Society for the Electric Speed project series, curated by Kate Armstrong and Malcolm Levy. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $11.8 million in media arts throughout Canada.
Field of the Dead and Undead
high definition video • 2011
Total running time, 18 mins, 30 secs
Above - video stills; below - video
***PASSWORD "zombiefull"
Description:
Various actors enter a foggy field one by one, die, then stagger off as zombies. Meanwhile other zombies haunt
the gloomy field in the background and foreground. The actors were all given a simple
instruction. Shot separately, they were painstakingly composited together (a process which took nearly 3 years to complete)
in order to lend their appearances an other-worldly quality.
Soundtrack composed by Knocker, arranged by Knocker and Jillian Mcdonald.
This work was made possible by a residency at The Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin County, CA
Incident at the Pool
High definition video • 2011
Total running time, 5 mins, 40 secs
***PASSWORD "CactiAZ"
Description:
In partial stop-motion, a desert sunbather is slain by her potted succulents, the body dumped poolside.
This work was created in residence at ASU Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona. Curated by John Spiak.
RedRum
high definition video, 2010
Total running time, 8 mins, 50 secs, with credits (7 mins, 46 secs without)
***PASSWORD "redrumfull"
Description:
Its title a reference to The Shining where a boy predicts "redrum" (murder) before a hotel elevator bursts
with blood and all hell breaks loose, this video has a haunted horror theme. The scenes take us through
a cavernous home where blood - a predominant prop in horror films - drips from faucets, runs down mirrors,
and pools on stairs. The blood appears disembodied until the camera slowly reveals its haunted source,
visiting neighbouring houses that also drip with blood, suggesting a murderous streak. RedRum, filmed on
location in Buffalo, NY in late 2009, features local teenagers, Buffalo homes, and The Buffalo Soundpainting Ensemble.
Created in residence at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center. Curated by John Massier.
Alone Together in the Dark
Total running time of video, 15 minutes
2-channel video installation with photographic murals and sound, 2010
***PASSWORD "aloneinstallation"
The video above demonstrates the two video channels side-by side. They are however installed opposite one another and surrounded by the photographic banners. See below for installation views.
images above, video stills; images below, installation views
Description:
Two videos projected on opposite walls feature zombies and vampires staging a dramatic Western-style showdown at
dawn in the desert.
Surrounding the videos are floor-to-ceiling photographic murals that wrap the gallery in local desert imagery: cacti, mountain, rugged terrain,
contemporary ghost towns, and graveyards. A freestanding saguaro rattles dryly.
This work was created in residence at ASU Art Museum with a cast of local participants in Tempe, Arizona, and included 50 actors, 4 videographers, 1 documentary photographer, 10 make-up artists, and 1 sound designer. Curated by John Spiak.
Apocalypse Zombie
Total running time of video, 5:44 minutes
high definition video, 2009
***PASSWORD "apocalypsefull"
Description:
A re-imagined final scene from the 1985 New Zealand film "Quiet Earth".
A woman on the beach is zombified by an unseen force that also causes
beautiful atmospheric meltdown, over and over again.
This work was made possible by a residency at The Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin County, CA
Undead in the Night
performance, Sweden, May 2009
Total running time of video documentation, 14 mins, 28 seconds
Total running time of performance: work was performed for 5 hours (on repeat, 13 times per night) starting at sunset, for 3 nights. A new audience of 8, with a guide, began the 3km walk (which took 1.5 hours), every 15 minutes
Description:
A collaboration with Lilith Performance Studio in Malmö, Sweden with over 100 actors, out in the forest in the middle of the night.
"The artist places two undead creatures (hideous Zombies and stunning Vampires) in the same scenes with their victims, violating
the codes and boundaries of the horror genre, and creating an impossible scenario. The observer becomes a visitor in a living horror movie.
Starting at twilight a bus transfers the audience 8 people at a time to an undisclosed forest location. Following a path in the dark various
scenes come alive along a 3 km long horror path."
This work was created in residence at Lilith Performance Studio, in Malmö, Sweden.
The Screaming
video, 2007
Total running time, 11mins
***PASSWORD "screamingfull"
Description:
The startling scream is a device used across film genres, but particularly in horror, to effectively ensure the viewer has not slipped into a state of comfort or complacency. Just when the coast has cleared, the monster rises again for one more stab or bite at the collective horror nerve. Accompanying this visual lurch is often a piercing scream by a protagonist female, the sound of which amplifies and suspends the horrifying effect, rendering it visceral.
The scream is an outward sign that the character in the film has lost her calm, and a signal to viewers that perhaps they ought to scream too. I insert myself into scenes from well-known horror films from the 1970s onward. My presence serves not as a self-portrait but as a zone of fantasy - my protagonist screams at the horror not out of helpless fear but with a powerful, sometimes destructive force that scares or even blows the monsters away.
Writes Trent Morse on Saatchi Gallery's Daily Magazine,
"Mcdonald reverses traditional roles of killer and victim by defeating her
tormentors with piercing screams. Early in the video, she seems surprised when her
shrieks cause villains, such as Michael Myers from Halloween or Freddy Krueger from
A Nightmare on Elm Street, to fearfully retreat. Towards the end, however, she revels
in her power and becomes a killer in her own right, culminating in a scream that
prompts the fiery explosion of a bloblike creature from the B-movie Slither. Mcdonald's
shrieking character is an empowered woman using her presumed weakness as a sonic bludgeon,
but always in a humorous way. The brevity of the movie clips, removed from their plots and
storylines, exaggerates the silliness of these horror films. Each time I saw the video,
Mcdonald's grossed-out reactions to her conquered enemies elicited grins and even out-loud
laughter from gallery goers, a rarity in an art world that sometimes takes itself too seriously."
review "Last Chance: Trent Morse on Jillian Mcdonald at Moti Hasson, New York" by Trent Morse, The Saatchi Gallery Daily Magazine, November 9th, 2007 - read online
This work was created in residence at The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Workspace Program (NYC), The Western Front (Vancouver), and The School of Visual Arts (NYC)
Horror Make-up
performance video, 2006
Total running time, 6 mins
***PASSWORD "horrormakeupfull"
Description:
In “Horror Make-up” I transform myself from normal to zombie
in the midst of a daily subway commute. Instead of improving my features,
like the woman who steadily applies makeup en route to work or play, I
become gruesome. This work takes cues from the legion of women who perform
beauty rituals on the subway in a curious private zone where they seem
unaware of anything outside their activity, and the rising cult of zombies
in popular culture, where zombie gatherings and zombie lore flourish.
Locating the audience physically in the subway performance space positions
them as both voyeurs and potential victims.
Read feature New York Times article by Carol Kino, "Watch the Closing Doors, and Mind the Zombies"
Zombies in Condoland
public performance, 2008
Total running time of video documentation, 9 mins, 33 seconds
Total running time of performance, 12 hours, 1 night only
Description:
Zombies in Condoland" was a series of night actions that mimicked a film screening
set for a low-budget horror film such as the type made famous by George Romero
whose latest film, "Diary of a Zombie", was filmed in Toronto.
Anyone could participate and be a zombie. Zombies were encouraged to come in character -
nurse zombie, business person zombie, geek zombie, sports zombie. They were encouraged
also to do their makeup en route, in cafes, bars, and mass transit. Make-up tents,
zombie costumes, and zombie training were available on site.
A website and blog were created to include instructional videos, information, and inspiration to
potential zombies.
Curated by Gordon Hatt and commissioned by Nuit Blanche Toronto
feature "Nuit Blanche: Getting your Zombie on" - The Toronto Star, by Marlene Arpe, Oct 4 -
read online
feature "Jillian Mcdonald: Zombies Attack" - MOW Magzine, by David Jager, Oct -
read online
review "Night of the Living, When Zombies can get 15 Seconds of Fame" - The Toronto Star, by Martin Knelman, July 10 -
read online
Visit Zombies in Condoland website.
Zombie Loop
2-channel video installation, 2006
above, installation images, artMovingProjects Gallery, Brooklyn. below, installation documentation.
***PASSWORD "zombieloopinstall"
Description:
The zombie, among other "undead" monsters, is the definitive
horror creature thanks to its abject existence – robbed of identity,
neither fully dead nor fully alive, neither clever nor resourceful, and
driven only by its hunger for flesh. The central dilemma of the sub-genre
of zombie films is that the survivor must outrun and therefore outlive
the zombie. Victims turn into zombies, therefore to be caught and find
oneself zombified is the most horrifying resolution. The sub-genre plots
survivors on the move and ever vigilant, or temporarily holed-up and sleeping
with one eye open. It is impossibly difficult to escape zombies, despite
the fact that with little exception they move agonizingly slowly. Although
it should be easy to escape them, the earliest victims are those paralyzed
by their own fear.
Zombie Loop is a two-channel video in which projections on two opposing walls position the viewer in the center of a visual loop, wherein a gruesome zombie endlessly pursues a running survivor. On screen, I “play” both zombie and survivor. The video tracks are the same length. The zombie, prepared with professional make-up and filmed from the front stumbles, expressionless but threatening, towards its goal of catching the survivor. The survivor runs, occasionally glancing over her shoulder and exclaiming in fear as she becomes aware of the imminent danger. In the scenarios, filmed on a country road in Avoca, Wisconsin, it is obvious that the zombie and the survivor are somehow the same, referencing the genre’s implied life-cycle where the living become the undead and the undead want only to consume the living. The tracks are projected simultaneously and the sequences looped continuously.
Locating the viewers physically between the two roles positions them as both the pursued just out of reach of danger, and the pursuer hungering for its prey.
Vampire Hunt
2-channel video, 2007
Description:
The vampire, although undead, lives a rich immortal life, and is cloaked
in a mythology that is simultaneously erotic, intriguing, and infinitely mysterious.
Unlike the zombie, the vampire is an elegant, clever, and exotic creature worthy of
admiration who hunts by night, draining victims of life and blood. In possession of
a subconscious, a vampire may experience guilt or remorse, cursing his or her existence
yet unable to end it.
Vampire Hunting is a two-channel video in which projections on two opposing walls position the viewer in the center of a visual loop, wherein a hungry vampire endlessly pursues a heroine.* On screen, I “play” both roles. The video tracks are the same length. The vampire, prepared with professional make-up and seen from the front stalks its prey, our heroine, who has already received a fang bite.
The heroine slips through the forest hiding and glancing over her shoulder, ever aware of the imminent danger as the camera follows her. Her predator has already been wounded by a stake to the heart. In the scenarios, filmed in a pine forest in Southern Wisconsin, it is obvious that vampire and heroine are somehow the same, referencing the genre’s implied life-cycle where the living become the undead and the undead survive only by drinking from the living. Chronological time is confused, the narrative is non-linear. The vampire is hunting, and also being hunted. The tracks are projected simultaneously and the sequences looped continuously.
Locating the viewers physically between the two roles positions them as both the pursued just out of reach of danger, and the pursuer hungering for its prey.
review "Jillian McDonald: Richmond, VA" - Art Papers magazine, by Virginia B. Spivey, May/June, pp 72 -72 read online
Zombie Portraits
series of lenticular photographs, 2007
Models are transformed
from normal to zombie before the viewers's eyes! This work takes cues
from the rising cult of zombies in popular culture, where zombie gatherings
and zombie lore flourish. It exposes the artifice of the horror genre,
at once softening the frightening effect and eliciting humor.
The photographs
are lenticular images, meaning that ribbed surface lenses reflect the images
beneath them so that as the viewer's point of view changes (and the move from left to right in front of the image), the viewed
image changes - creating the illusion of morphing. In effect these are
interactive animations.
Note: the images here are animated gifs which represent the stages of animation, not lenticular images.
The photographic objects themselves are difficult to document and much more dramatic in person
feature "Dead Sexy: Jillian Mcdonald Makes Zombie Art You Can Really Sink Your Teeth Into"" - Bust magazine, by Molly Simms, Oct / Nov read online
Screen Kiss
Video, 2005
***PASSWORD "screenkissfull"
To Vincent with Love
4-Channel Video Installation, 2004
Installation View, 2005, YYZ Gallery, Toronto
***PASSWORD "tvwl-installation-view"
***PASSWORD "tvwl-channel1"
***PASSWORD "tvwl-channel2"