Sally McKay

A Current Project: Boost Presume I’m Gonna Breathe Grieved​, a collaboration with Lorna Mills commissioned by Hyperallergic. 

bio

I am an artist, curator, art writer and educator based in Hamilton, Ontario. I work in performance, installation and digital media and I frequently collaborate on art projects with others.

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Right now I am working full-time as a post doctoral fellow at McMaster University. From 2012-2018, I was teaching full time there on a series of contractually limited appointments.

Lately I have been spending time in Parking Lot M at McMaster University. This site is located on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the “Dish With One Spoon” wampum agreement. This site is covered by the Between the Lakes Treaty No. 3 (1792). I also live and work on land covered by the same treaty.  

Parking Lot M on West Campus at McMaster is a site that speaks of colonialism on many registers. It is an ecologically significant area. Coldwater Creek flows through the site. It is beautiful and compromised. I have been spending time with the creek as well, walking its course from the headwaters in Ancaster. There are many people invested in this area, including the killdeer who nest in the gravel section of the parking lot. 

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In all my art and research, I like to think about how art can be a point of connection for many people. I am interested in how art intersects with science and social justice. My PhD was about art, neuroscience, and perception through a critical, feminist lens. I did this work at York University, in Art History and Visual Culture. 

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From 1997-2003, I worked with Catherine Osborne as co-owner and co-editor of Lola Magazine in Toronto, which was co-founded by myself, Catherine and John Massier.