Anna McCarthy
Maps are always wrong never right

Unhappy girl 
Left all alone 
Playing solitaire 
Playing warden to your soul 
You are locked in a prison

(Unhappy Girl, The Doors)

The subject of the „Unhappys“ is a reoccurring theme in Anna McCarthy’s work. Not only does her latest video BORED REBELS GOING UNDERGROUND end with the song “Unhappy girl” by The Doors; the “Unhappys” also populate the back side of an old political map which the artist combines with the film and several mixed-media objects to create a multi-layered installation at the Esther Donatz Gallery.

Both the song as well as the symbolism of the “Unhappys” reflect the hopeless situation of the protagonists in BORED REBELS GOING UNDERGROUND. Imprisoned in what looks like a bunker, they have been isolated from the outside world that – if the background noise can be trusted – seems to be in a war-like state. Despite leather jackets and other stereotypical accessories of rebellion, the actionism of the characters is doubtful. The (anti-)heroes are rather bored and appear like relics from a bygone age even though they are clearly rooted in the present. Their meaningless actions and rituals are conveyed by a blatant use of language and simplified visual aesthetics that are common, for example, in Pop Art. References to the films of Jean-Luc Godard, especially MADE IN U.S.A. (1966), as well as Luis Buñuel’s  THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (1972) can be found.

As part of the long-term multimedia project “How to start a Revolution”, BORED REBELS GOING UNDERGROUND is a sequel to Anna McCarthy’s video series “Bored Rebels”. In these works, the artist particularly questions the romanticization of the “rebel notion” rooted in the 60s and 70s by satirically exposing common clichés. The latest piece in this series drifts into evermore abstracter realms, playing with transcendence, layering and repetition in color, form and content. The drawings and objects exhibited at the Esther Donatz Gallery stand out with reduced visual means and a simple iconography that focus attention on senses and instinct.

For her solo show „Maps are always wrong never right“ at the Esther Donatz Gallery, Anna McCarthy uses film, mixed-media objects and paintings to form a semi-fictitious 'underground archive', solely referring to its own fiction. In the same way in which the film protagonists are trapped in their own world, the gallery visitor enters a microcosm which offers many directions and modes of interpretation.

Anna McCarthy (born in 1981), whose multidisciplinary work consists of paintings, drawings, installations, performances, text and film, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and at the Glasgow School of Art. Besides exhibitions at the Kunstverein Bielefeld and Wolfsburg, her work has been shown at the Chisenhale Gallery, London, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, and the Shedhalle, Zurich.The Munich audience has become acquainted with her art through shows at the Kunstverein Munich, Lothringer 13, as well as the theater project “Ich dachte man darf alles (I thought everything was allowed)” at MaximiliansForum, which was realized in collaboration with the artist Hedwig Eberle. This year, Glasmoog Cologne and Niklas Schechinger Fine Arts presented solo exhibitions of her work.

Contact

Esther Donatz
esther(at)galeriedonatz.de

Nadine Seligmann
nadine(at)galeriedonatz.de

Phone: +49 89 70 07 62 00