{"id":1122,"date":"2016-08-28T23:46:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T23:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=1122"},"modified":"2016-08-28T23:46:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T23:46:25","slug":"lethbridge-herald-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/?p=1122","title":{"rendered":"Lethbridge Herald Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018Court Painter\u2019 exhibit collage for political commentary<\/strong><\/p>\n

BY SCHNARR, J.W. ON AUGUST 28, 2016.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Artist Allan Harding MacKay holds one of his pieces from his exhibit Court Painter which is showing at the Trianon Gallery. Herald photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHerald<\/p>\n

J.W. Schnarr
\nLethbridge Herald jwschnarr@lethbridgeherald.com<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the court painters and the court fools were in service to the throne, and acted as observers and critics of the upper class.
\nAllan Harding MacKay\u2019s new exhibit at the Trianon Gallery, titled \u201cCourt Painter,\u201d continues in that tradition with the medium of digital collage for political commentary. In the process, he is bridging gaps between the past four centuries. \u201cIt\u2019s a very contemporary project, in terms of the technology,\u201d MacKay said. \u201cBut I\u2019m using all kinds of older, and sometimes ancient, settings to update it in terms of peopling it with contemporary events.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Slayer<\/p>\n

MacKay said his exhibit follows in the tradition of other forms of art in political satire, including political cartoons, satirical magazines and news\/comedy shows such as \u201cThe Daily Show.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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MacKay pointed to a recent example where federal health minister Jane Philpott has been dogged by reporters and opposition MPs about how much she has spent on limousines, but virtually no mention has been made of Jason Kenney collecting a federal MP\u2019s salary while campaigning in Alberta this past summer in advance of his run for PC Alberta leadership.<\/p>\n

\"Court<\/p>\n

\"Court<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a kind of cutting through of a lot of the political peccadilloes that happen, and the hypocrisy that goes on,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s out of all of that tradition, and making it contemporary in terms of visual caricature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Crusaderz\"
\nMacKay said through studying political events and interactions at all levels, he is able to single out events he deems fit for inclusion, or \u201cevents the Court Painter gets annoyed about.\u201d
\nThe characters are either politicians or those on the fringe of the political process, including media and outlying manipulators. Images are collected from the internet and inserted into staged settings.<\/p>\n

\"Steve
\nI\u2019m a bit of a political junkie,\u201d MacKay said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched (politics) very closely over the past number of years.\u201d
\nMacKay began work on the collages in 2013, and said there are now more than 500 in the collection \u2013 though only about 40 are in the exhibit.
\nThe images started as something MacKay would email to friends and family as a way to inject some humour into what he feels are frustrating political events. He has continued sending the collages out with a small mailing list.<\/p>\n

\"Court
\nCalgary artist and retired University of Calgary professor John Will plays the part of the Court Painter in many of the collages.
\nFor more information on Harding\u2019s work, visit allanhardingmackay.com.
\nFollow @JWSchnarrHerald on Twitter<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Court Painter\u2019 exhibit collage for political commentary BY SCHNARR, J.W. ON AUGUST 28, 2016. Artist Allan Harding MacKay holds one of his pieces from his exhibit Court Painter which is showing at the Trianon Gallery. Herald photo by Ian Martens @IMartensHerald J.W. Schnarr Lethbridge Herald jwschnarr@lethbridgeherald.com Traditionally, the court painters and the court fools were … Continue reading “Lethbridge Herald Review”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","hentry","category-images","post_format-post-format-gallery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1126,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1122\/revisions\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allanhardingmackay.ca\/courtpainter\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}