Thinking about all the things that I think that I need or want Laura McCafferty
P.V: 1 May 2014 (6 - 9pm) 2 May – 20 June 2014
Press Release
Mrs Rick’s
Cupboard is pleased to invite you to our next exhibition, ‘Thinking about all the things that I think that I need or want’ by
Laura McCafferty.
“… New
curtains for the living-room… Made from Sanderson fabric, Rainforest design, in
emerald green. Oh and they would look better, made professionally rather than
by me. If they were professionally made, I could have lead weights in the
corners and pinched tops, like…”
McCafferty noticed
one day that she, like many others, gave a lot of time to thinking about things
that she hoped would bring about ‘happiness’. It dawned on her that this had
become a kind of exhausting daily ritual. She decided that she could live without
all this superfluous stuff and would begin the task of recording the things on
a wish list. Owning similar versions of most things on the list, she began to
question the desire for duplication and read,
“Be
carefree. Desires, obsessions and possessions possess you. Free yourself from
your impulses. Make an active decision to have simple daily needs.”
This would be the new mantra. However,
things don’t go that simply in McCafferty’s world. Although, daily she wishes
they would. Twists and turns are inevitable as she hungrily searches for
simplicity. Consumed in the search for something pure, things get complicated
and sometimes confusing. Add the tardis-like quality of Mrs Rick’s Cupboard to
the mix and the work goes through many transformations both real and imaginary.
Through an interdisciplinary approach to making McCafferty uses drawing,
textile, film and text to explore ideas of desire, process, veneer, spaces of
possibility, doing/undoing to subtly mess with what’s expected.
McCafferty is currently
undertaking an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London (2012-2016). She
graduated in 2003, with BA (Hons) in Decorative Arts from Nottingham Trent
University. Recent selected group exhibitions include In the Making, Nottingham
Trent University (2014), Art & Television, Triennale di Milano (2014),
Pile, Surface Gallery, Nottingham (2010) and Chapter, Cardiff (2011). She has
recently been selected for the forthcoming Opem 3, The Collection, Lincoln.
McCafferty lives in Nottingham and is a Visiting lecturer at Nottingham Trent
University.
