There’s just something about this agglomeration of figures in terracotta, plaster, varnish, oil paints, nail polish, eye shadow and glazes that makes sense for an exhibit focused on the experience of being human.

Jordan MacLachlan’s Unexpected Subway Living is part of the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art’s “Ineffable Plasticity” exhibit, mounted to “consider the idea that all human attributes and activity are an expression of nature.”

Her installation consists of about 300 pieces on a 24-foot table simulating the subway, populated by sculpted humans and animals.  MacLachlan “imagines scenes from the new Depression played out in underground, public spaces that offer the only shelter left to a cast of economic refugees,” writes reviewer Christopher Jones.

Detail: Unexpected Subway Living, Jordan MacLachlan

Another reviewer compares the piece to the Toronto Transit Commission of today:

“As unusual as many of the scenarios feel, some of the instances depicted don’t seem so far off from the real juxtapositions of public transit. While you won’t normally find a woman giving birth on the floor of a subway car, it is common to see the stark contrast of a wealthy, occasional rider next to a homeless person begging for money. This piece evoked a childhood enchantment in viewers at the opening.” Review on The Strand.

Photo Credit: Fayiaz Chunara, The Strand

More detail on Unexpected Subway Living, here

More on the artist Jordan MacLachlan, here.

More on the whole exhibit – Ineffable Plasticity  at MOCCA in Toronto,  here.

*Uncaptioned Photos:  Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art