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C102
review
Kilkenny:
Paul McCarthy at Butler
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Paul
McCarthy: Painter, 1995, video still;
courtesy Butler Gallery
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The
selection of video works imparted to this exhibition an engaging
conceptual rigour and a relatively narrow focus in terms of
McCarthy's oeuvre. Although chief amongst McCarthy's gifts
is to create extremely black, funny, dense artworks that can
be read on many levels, this show had a more limited scope.
A critical articulation of male narcissism and violence, as
elemental to a certain type of art practice, struck me as
the keynote of the show.
Painter,
1995, was the only recent work in the exhibition, and
the way it related to the earlier works (spanning 1971 - 1976)
was revealing. It is undoubtedly the funniest and 'easiest'
work in the show. Essentially it is an elaborate one-liner,
an insider lampooning every romantic and macho cliché/delusion
artists and art-workers have ever cultivated about 'the creative
process'. The artist's libido is utterly entwined with his
practice; he takes a postcoital nap after penetrating the
canvas, fists a giant tube of 'shit' paint, makes driving
noises while painting, and chants, amongst many choice phrases,
"If the women could see me now, my boy." Throughout he remains
wrapped up in his own world, basically ignoring other people,
only cannily calming down to allow collectors smell his backside.
The premise could produce a very tired piece, but the cartoon
qualities, the madness, hilarity, and violence of his performance,
and the acuity of his attack makes it irresistible. (Ed Harris's
Pollock should only ever be screened in tandem with
this piece.)
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Paul
McCarthy: Face painting on floor, white line,1972,
2.04 min.
duration, from Black & white tape II,
video still of recorded
performance; courtesy Butler Gallery
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The earliest works are less developed and
only a familiarity with his later work primed me to see humour
in what could be read as po-faced performance, in particular
the actions that address painting, such as the whipping pieces
and painting with his face. The Ass End pieces (steering
his backside into the camera) and Pissing, Microphone
are the product of an inane curiosity and a crude imagination,
and are more obviously humorous. The most powerful of the
early black-and-white works was the revolting Spit Dicking
I and II where he literally gobbed for several minutes
on his penis. The self-loathing and self-absorption of these
pieces present a pertinent counterpoint to Vito Acconci's
Seed Bed, where the gesture is directed at, if concealed
from, the audience. Male narcissism and self-loathing become
pathological in both Sailor's Meat, Sailor's Delight
and Rocky. The former is an overlong fetishistic romp
where McCarthy (in drag) cavorts and masturbates repetitively
with meat, ketchup, and mayonnaise until he and the bed are
covered in a faecal-like mess. In Rocky he beats and
smears his masked self into abjection with boxing gloves and
ketchup. Both pieces suggest an equation of 'self' with shit/worthlessness
(echoed by the self-mutilation in Painter). The artistic
impulse he critiques is both self-indulgent and self-annihilating,
where feeling/acting 'tortured' is understood as having integrity
- ultimately alienating and making irrelevant the viewer.
Rocky ends when reality intrudes as the phone rings;
the charade/action interrupted, he instantly discards his
gloves to answer it. The crazed Painter is too far
gone to remember how to abandon his persona.
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Paul McCarthy: Karen ketchup dream,
cotton balls, 1973, min. 9.06
min. duration,from Black & White tapes
II, video still of recorded performance; courtesy
Butler Gallery;
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In
spite of the distance the lens creates between performance
and audience, it was a visceral and at times difficult exhibition,
and a valuable and bracing introduction of McCarthy to Ireland,
which did not opt for the safety of his funnier works.
Isabel Nolan is an artist and writer based in Dublin.
Paul
McCarthy, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, August - October
2002
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