catherine heard at MOCCA (Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, 5040 Yonge) to January 13. 416-395-7430. Rating: NN
catherine heard’s creepy rag dolls are among the most memorable sculpture to be seen on the local scene. She’s capable of invoking complex layers of emotion, simultaneous mixes of brutality and sentimentality, self-doubt and self-confidence, all from crudely stitched pieces of antique fabric.
So it’s deeply disappointing that her massively ambitious Hieronymus Bosch-inspired installation, Proverbs Of Hell, so utterly lacks subtlety.
Heard populates MOCCA’s darkened upper gallery with skinny fetal forms moulded from a hairy black felted material, arranged in complex tableaux linked by not-quite-umbilical red ribbons and punctuated by drawings on red-and-black hand-marbleized paper.
It’s striking, but Heard can do so much more.
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