What sacrifices are you willing to make so as to incarnate a so-called version of yourself that belongs somewhere in contemporary culture?
When instructing us on how to be a bear, artist Jody Macdonald advises us to "exercise our right to growl and be surly when disturbed", followed by "marking our territory by scratching all the electrical poles en route to work". On the subject of becoming what she calls a "Consumer Whore", she instructs us to "pay a premium for clothing that looks like you've pulled it out of a dumpster", as well as suggesting that "that empty feeling in your chest can be filled by masses of poorly made, useless products". These crude and straightforward instructions play a pivotal role in conveying the artist's conflicting sentiments towards one of her major dilemmas—identity. In Malleability: The Theater of Identity, Canadian artist Jody Macdonald introduces us to her whimsically sinister world of meticulously crafted puppets and sketches exploring the unceasing issue of the self.
For her How To Be series, Macdonald jots down a set of sarcastic instructions on how to properly behave in order to achieve a faux sense of self-improvement, from the lens of a feral bear to that of a ruthless corporation, she absurdly addresses urban decay and the human condition. The series, which the artist describes as quick-fix pocket guides for behavior, consists of a lineup of distinct action figure illustrations surrounded by sarcastic sentences of guidance toward a promised “better self” that ultimately leads to a pattern of undesirable traits.
We conduct ourselves as a performative entity, vulnerable to alterations based on specific standards or personas we attempt to embody for ourselves and others. Through sardonic digs, dark humor, and sharp observations, Macdonald lays bare the absurdity of identity curation and the endless reinventing of it in order to assume the role we assign ourselves. What sacrifices are you willing to make so as to incarnate a so-called version of yourself that belongs somewhere in contemporary culture? The artist navigates these deep reflections through sinister, satirical narratives, including her 2005 series titled I Am Your…, a group of doll-like paper sculptures beginning with a printout of the artist’s face affixed to the doll’s body, representing the “roles I have been cast", as Macdonald explains. Each doll is accompanied by a small poetry tag reciting declarations of compliant resentment against these inevitable performances.
In the presence of submission lies subordination, where the true-self is drowned out by an array of phony displays of character. This treatment of identity as a mere act, like that of a theater production, ridicules the human tendency to transform our essence in line with the environment we inhabit. The artist makes this clear in her 2018 series, titled RYG (Red, Yellow, Green), where she delves even deeper into identity by exploring the anonymity that goes in tandem with the transience of an ambiguous individuality. Featureless and pixelated faces are a reflection of the personal disassociation we go through on a day to day basis, which consequently translates into a lifelong quest for validation at the cost of our inner-self.
Inside of Jody Macdonald’s macabre little world, identity is exposed as a carefully curated display— one where we bend, distort, and sacrifice ourselves in order to comply with a prompt. Whether embodied by feral bears, corporate figures, or pixelated faces, her art ridicules the otherwise sober and pretentious attitudes we take pride in. The artist encourages us not to take ourselves too seriously while confronting heavy questions regarding authenticity and malleability. Ultimately, she answers these questions by exposing the pursuit of a ‘better’ version of ourselves as an inevitable doom, gradually disconnecting us from who we truly are.
Statement and curation by Sofia Witos
