Stephen McLeod

Often cloaking my work in humour and absurdity, I explore topics such as computational poetry, sound sculpture, repetition and labour, embodied consciousness, and learning through failure. My practice thrives on the tension felt at the border of knowledge and intuition: often utilizing sound, software, performance, installation, text, and video. Framed as an opera, my current project centres (queer) family and the architecture of the home — structures which enable and constrain the range of possible human relations. I am particularly intrigued by the image of the house as a spirit, of being haunted, having desires, expectations, and recirculating the emotional lives of its inhabitants. In contrast to the inscrutability of the house, I try to tell the mundane stories of the inhabitants (my family) necessitating a process of negotiation, holding space for conflicting visions and memories while building up an environment of comfortable togetherness.

Interdisciplinary artist Stephen McLeod completed his B.A. in Studio Art at the University of Guelph — as well as a good 2/3rds of a computer science minor. McLeod was a founding member of the collective VSVSVS and has exhibited internationally. Recent projects include a residency with the collective Flux Factory in New York and at the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum in Denmark. He has received funding for his work through the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council and Canada Arts Council.