Master Residency 2025 – Myfanwy MacLeod

In this latest project, MacLeod turns her attention to North American fraternity culture, its rituals, myths, and contradictions. Using greasy stains from pizza boxes as the foundation for collages, paintings, and ceramics, she transforms the residue of everyday life into symbols of absurdity and devotion.

My fascination with the folklore surrounding ‘Greek life’ and its initiation rituals began long before I learned that the Burnaby Art Gallery, where my upcoming exhibition will be held, was once a fraternity house.

Her works draw from diverse sources, including the region’s rich ceramic history, early 20th-century photomontage, and the late paintings of Philip Guston. Yet amid the humor and critique, La Napoule’s atmosphere has introduced a new tone of stillness:

The skies above La Napoule infuse my works with an amorphous quality, almost like a pause, a moment suspended from the usual rhythm of humor and critique.

This delicate balance between irony and introspection reflects MacLeod’s broader artistic language — one that questions cultural narratives while embracing their contradictions.

Immersed in the Château’s layered history and its whispers of the past, MacLeod finds inspiration in the interplay between myth and materiality:

Since I arrived, our evening conversations often drift toward ghosts. The legacy of Henry and Marie Clews — and the atmosphere they left behind — invites these strange stories. It’s haunting in the best possible way.

This resonance between the spirit of the place and her own creative inquiries has sparked new experiments, including a project inspired by the roadside kiosks between Mandelieu-la-Napoule and Cannes, blending performance, sound, scenography, and urban observation.

La Napoule has been an incredible catalyst, letting my imagination run riot and bringing these disparate elements into a sharper, stranger conversation.

Since I arrived at La Napoule in September, there have been nightly conversations over dinner with the other residents about ghosts. The work of Henry and Marie Clews, as well as the atmosphere they created at the chateau, naturally lends itself to discussing strange noises and things that go bump in the night. But La Napoule also offers a counterpoint to my obsession with the stains, scraps, and messy residues of fraternity culture.

This fascination with the folklore surrounding ‘Greek life’ and its initiation rituals began long before I learned that the Burnaby Art Gallery, where my forthcoming exhibition, Trophies, will be held, was once a fraternity house. The raunchy 2003 comedy Old School, starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson, is one of my favourite films that never fails to crack me up, despite its dubious sexual politics and tired clichés about frat boy antics. This partially explains why, during my three-month Master’s residency at La Napoule, I am focused on transforming the greasy stains from pizza boxes into collages, paintings, and ceramics.

These works draw from various sources, including the region’s rich history of ceramic production, early 20th-century photo-montages, and Philip Guston’s late work. But above all, the colours of the skies above La Napoule infuse the works with an amorphous quality that slows things down, almost like a pause from the humour and critique generally present in my work. Eventually, when I bring the collages, paintings, and ceramics together, I hope they create a constellation that doesn’t sit neatly in one place but blurs the high and the low, reverence and ridicule.

Although I am currently concentrating on this particular body of work, my time here is also allowing me to experiment. An ordinary bus ride sparked an idea for a new work inspired by the kiosks between Mandelieu-la-Napoule and Cannes, which will merge performance, sound design, scenography, and urban research. La Napoule has been an unbelievable catalyst, allowing my imagination to run riot and bringing these disparate elements into a sharper, stranger conversation.

A selection of works-in-progress and studio views from the residency at La Napoule.