Catharine MacTavish
Night Shift
1979-2024
Digital print on Coach House Zephyr Antique Laid paper
(Printed at Coach House Press, Toronto)
18 x 12 in (45.72 x 30.48 cm)
Edition of 200
To Order:
lechauffagemag@gmail.com
20 € / 25 CAD / 22 USD + shipping
This edition produced by Catharine MacTavish for Le Chauffage is based on a lithograph produced by the artist in 1979 from a drawing she’d made while working as a night clerk in a hospital. This drawing was part of a series of experiments aimed at understanding ‘selflessness.’ In MacTavish’s own words, “the notion that a room can appear in the absence of a sentient inhabitant, if only a fly, is mistaken, crumbles under scrutiny, and is a pillar of endless trouble. It’s a trap, so the door out is a door in.” Since most of the original prints were either lost or damaged, the artist who used to work at Coach House Press was keen to return there to produce this new edition.
Catharine MacTavish (b. 1952) is a Canadian artist living in Toronto. Although her vast and ongoing body of work is still relatively undiscovered, early drawings and paintings are included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Surrey Art Gallery and the Canada Council Art Bank, to name a few. MacTavish has had solo exhibitions at the Richmond Art Gallery, the U.B.C. Fine Arts Gallery, Gallery Stratford, Mercer Union and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. She holds a BFA from York University and an MA in Religion and Culture from Wilfrid Laurier University.