Liss Platt’s second solo show at MKG127 represents a continuation of her interest in bringing elements of the everyday, along with personal and autobiographical content, into an aestheticised and conceptual art practice. For Platt, junk drawers are a site of contained chaos, the place where people stash things that they don’t know what to do with but can’t quite throw out. As such, they provide a distinct entry point to portraiture. Additionally, the process of sorting, arranging, and photographing the junk drawer contents is an investigation into Platt’s impulse to organize and control as well as a response to her father’s hoarding. As with much of her, work she hopes to encourage viewers to reconsider familiar objects and to find in them metaphoric and expressive content.

Liss Platt is a multimedia artist who works in photography, video, film, installation, performance, artist’s books, web art, and any combination thereof. The issues and ideas she investigates usually dictate which ‘tools’ she uses and what form the works take. The use of everday objects, imagery, and residual media (such as analog photography) make the resultant artworks accessible through familiarity and seek to build an emotional connection to viewers by engendering feelings of nostalgia. At the same time, they also encourage audiences to reconsider assumptions about what objects and forms are appropriate as art while encouraging contemplation of often taken-for-granted aspects of our everyday life.

Platt’s work has been exhibited and screened in North America and internationally. Recent exhibitions include a solo show at Rodman Hall Art Centre in St. Catherines, Ontario; a performance and exhibition at Struts Gallery in Sackville, New Brunswick, and a film/video commission project for The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2012 she received a City of Hamliton Arts Award in Visual Arts and she has been awarded numerous grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council. Liss Platt is also a member of the Shake-n-Make collective. She lives in Hamiton, Ontario and is an Associate Professor of Multimedia at McMaster University.

Liss would like to thank photo assistant Graciela Alaniz for her help realizing this project and the Ontario Arts Council for their support.