Notice Board

It is fairly common for unidentifiable masses of decomposing sea-flesh, often measuring several metres in length and generally known as “globsters”, to wash ashore in many parts of the world. Due to their state of decomposition and the lack of any remaining external features, definite identification is not always possible until detailed cellular or DNA analysis is completed. Often thought to be cryptozoological in nature, these mysterious blobs, however, are more likely to be found the remains of partially decayed sperm whales or sharks. In May of 2017 Mary-Anne McTrowe began production of a woven and felted representation of an imaginary globster, the “Blöndúos Blob”, at the Icelandic Textile Centre in Blöndúos, Iceland.

Mary-Anne McTrowe was born and raised in southern Alberta, where she earned her B.F.A. at the University of Lethbridge in 1998. She went on to pursue graduate studies at Concordia University in Montreal, and received her M.F.A. in studio art in 2001. Her work has spanned a number of different media including performance, installation, and textiles, and in her practice she explores objects that are in states of transformation, focusing on the question of how things that are familiar to us can be made unfamiliar; how a change in context can render something temporarily strange and perhaps even unrecognizable. McTrowe was a member of the recently retired folk art-ernative band The Cedar Tavern Singers AKA Les Phonoréalistes with Daniel Wong, was a founding member of Trap\door Artist Run Centre, and currently works as a technician in the art department at the University of Lethbridge.

Blonduous Blob, 2017, image courtesy of the artist.