2014, TORONTO, CANADA
THE LAST DROP
EXHIBITED AT THE BMO PROJECT ROOM
COMMISSIONED BY BANK OF MONTREAL
Based on a postcard image from 1906, this life-size bronze sculpture portrays an old-fashioned hobo sitting on a log, wearing a long waistcoat, tattered pants and misshapen hat. He holds a downturned, empty bottle in one hand, while the other rests on his temple, a look of comic dismay or desperation on his face. The room he occupies is painted pink, a colour long associated with drunken delirium and hallucinations.
The appearance of a down-on-his-luck vagrant in the context of a bank is unexpected, as is the artist’s choice to immortalize this tragicomic figure in bronze—the traditional High Art material of sculptural masterworks and public monuments.
Myfanwy MacLeod often explores the ways an image or concept can be altered, transformed, or given new meaning when its context or form is changed. Like much of her work, The Last Drop addresses social, cultural and artistic clichés with irreverence and playful seriousness, wavering like the drunkard’s walk through an entropic universe.
—Dawn Cain, Curator,
BMO Financial Group Corporate Art Collection