2010 LAITH MCGREGOR: INLAND SEA SHANTY

EXHIBITION IMAGES

Laith McGregor extended his creative reach into international regions with a residency at the Centre Intermondes, La Rochelle, France in January 2010. Taking truly non-fiction materials and creating fictional narratives, McGregor presents his new cast of characters, the products of his residency.

“This story is from an outsider’s perspective. An observation of a French portside cities rich History. La Rochelle, has provided the backdrop for a fable, a seaman’s song, a sea shanty. Part autobiography, part documentation, fiction and non-fiction. Historical figures and fictitious characters morf and weave, reaffirming themselves and their presence like phantoms into the fabric of my journey like a classical poem, lives, places and paths intertwine into a new story, a comedy and a tragedy.” – Laith McGregor 2010
Emerging from the systemic nature of mundane inventions of work life, come the typical mark making tools prosaically confined to administration and documentation. Items not typically invited to the art world’s canon of materials become the modus by which Laith subverts the context by skillfully inventing drawings from biro pen, paper, permanent marker and tarp among others. Surfacing topics from hero worship, personal family story, gender stereotypes, beards, wisdom and authority. McGregor infuses a do-it-yourself ethos into the ordinary, articulating painfully detailed lines into a mesmerizing contemporary narrative.