My conscious exhibition strategies engage an audience comprised of a very general public that is not necessarily expecting art or gathered in established arts venues. I interrupt the flow of daily public exchange, inviting strangers into momentary relationships. I create websites that infiltrate and participate in online fan culture, offer advice to strangers from storefronts, and find reasons to enter into the homes of strangers. Sylvie Fortin (Art Papers magazine, Sept / Oct 2005) writes of my practice, “relationships are her medium, fleeting encounters her material”.
My work in video, web art, and public intervention is often performative and relational.
In my recent video work, I am interested in the American cult of celebrity, the fantasy that buoys extreme fandom, and the mechanisms of fear as entertainment at work in horror films. The presence of my image in the work serves not as a self-portrait, but as a projection of universal emotions such as desire or fear. In Me and Billy Bob, I digitally manipulate romantic scenes from Hollywood films starring actor Billy Bob Thornton, creating a soft critique of celebrity obsession. In Screaming, I insert myself into popular horror films such as The Shining and Alien, screaming at the monsters to scare them away or blow them to smithereens. In Horror Makeup, I apply makeup on a daily subway commute, transforming myself into a zombie.
Caitlin Jones, of Rhizome, wrote that my “work is distinct from many other artists also concerned with the cinematic. Not simply interested in issues of narrative, time, space, or the like, Mcdonald looks specifically at the genres romance and horror and how these constructions become a part of our own experiences” (Rhizome, Oct 8, 2007).
My interactive web works are propelled by obsession, poetics, identity, language, and pop-culture. Some of my work online is beginning to draw lines between digital and performative interactivity - Snow Stories is a data-driven story engine where visitor's written stories are translated into audio-visual stories; Advice Lounge is an online advice lounge which functions via a custom chat application, webcams, and an animated lounge; and Ivy League - a collaboration with landscape architect Kelty McKinnon - a playful activist project advocating the simultaneous “dispersal and eradication” of English Ivy.
In performance, I engage with passersby as a means of orchestrating everyday activities away from their usual context, where audiences are made up of willing participants. With a base largely made up of strangers, I have shampooed hair in a salon in Shampoo, offered free advice in Advice Lounge, played games on the sidewalk in Ready to Play, transformed borrowed clothing in Tailor Made, sewn protective messages into clothing in Seams, brought plants into private homes in House Plant, and borrowed favourite objects for a month in Borrowed Things.
Works in progress include videos "Staring with Brad", "Heath Fading Slowly", "The Girl who Spoke with Animals" and interactive installation "The Sparkling".
