This series of videos responds to museum classification by sorting art objects into categories, substituting human personality types for traditional art taxonomies and emphasizing the deeply personal ways we come to know objects. Using the popular Myers-Briggs personality test, the project proposes an affective and absurd alternative to conventional forms of analysis.
Assigning each piece a Myers-Briggs personality type, McPherson elaborates the connection between form and personality in a poetic, abstract voice. Spoken descriptions align with close-up, roving glimpses to produce fragmentary encounters with each work.
Heather Leigh McPherson is a Providence-based artist who works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and animation. She is an associate professor of studio art at Providence College.