Exhibition Archive
'On the Road' by Paul Mac Cormaic - Opening 12th March at 7pm in the Toradh Gallery, Ashbourne. Running until April 9th.
Date Released: 06 March 2013
‘A collection of paintings that take a wry look at life on the road in 21st century Ireland: the long commutes, the effect of bypasses and issues around the environment.’ P. Mac Cormaic
Meath County Council Arts Office are pleased to present an exhibition of work by Paul Mac Cormaic, at the Toradh Gallery, Ashbourne Cultural Centre, Killegland Street, Ashbourne. The exhibition opens on March 12th and runs until April 9th.
This collection of paintings has been six years in the making, an on going project it is concerned with aspects of life on the road.
More and more time is being spent commuting, doing the school run and more recently travelling by motorway. This has a major impact on how we live our lives. We now listen to the radio more because we are stuck in traffic. Motorways bypass towns and villages with consequences for the inhabitants. Petrol stations close and life is quieter as through-traffic disappears. On the Road is about the visual impact of road building in the last twenty years. The exhibition is filled with images of the new, and what has been discarded, and each tells a story of rapid change and the adaptations ordinary people have to make. There are abandoned vehicles, obsolete and rusting away as well as baroque scenes of high drama around accidents and acts of vandalism.
The paintings are derived from photographs in a realist style in varying sizes. The titles are loaded with meaning and each word is chosen carefully. For example, ‘Abandoned Bulk Food Container’ is symbolic of the human condition and is concerned with obsolescence and greed. It refers to the human equivalent of older people, often as young as 45, finding themselves unemployable. The ‘Bulk Food’ refers to the obesity and inflated speculation of the last two decades. Similarly, ‘The School Run’, which features a crashed 4x4, is contradiction in terms, as children do not run or even walk to school yet the term the school drive or the school lift has not entered our language. There are ethics in the school run. Is it safe to let children walk to school alone? What is the best vehicle? An SUV might protect the occupants better but is more likely to do excessive damage to others in a collision.
It is quirks and observations such as these that ‘On the Road’ is all about.
Toradh Gallery, Ashbourne Cultural Centre, Killegland St, Ashbourne, March 12th – April 9th.
