Utilities – Meaghen Buckley

Press Release
The Maillardville Cultural Appreciation Society is pleased to present a solo exhibition of recent work by Meaghen Buckley. With a focus on the productive qualities of the body, Buckley engages with its potential as a mark making tool and a social instrument. Acting as open circuits, the works in this exhibition leave space for outside forces- environmental or human- to alter their possible forms while preserving the ability for further transformation. In place of finalized inviolable works Buckley’s projects are scores, able to be both read and enacted, collapsing the divide between producer and viewer: the situation created existing in the middle of the production process.

We only like each other because we hate other people
The only thing we ever really care about is people. Everything else is just something to get to them, everything else is us trying to make something take our place and be vulnerable in our stead. In real life we can’t do that, no matter the objects in the room we still have to be with the people. Your toaster can;t live your life. It’s easy to be hurt if attempting to have a conversation with an apathetic toaster, it always seems disinterested in the subject. If we’re stuck trying to say things in place of simply saying them why not skip the “thing” and move straight to the conversation.
Talking doesn’t need to be about relaying information, it can be simply an experience to compare hypotheses that build to nothing new. Be unproductive and content without anything to show for time spent. The things said; obvious or not, banal or not, are mostly unimportant, its only that we’ve taken the time to say them. New unnecessary relationships are built, making our lives a little better for a few moments. Conversation demands more time and more commitment for any real growth. Fine layers of sediment slowly get stuck and hopefully lead to something worth thinking about. Maybe we think more about the things that aren’t really there.