Tom McCarthy
Artifactual Constructions
Oct. 26-Nov. 26, 1984
by Virginia Miller

Of the thousands of artists that anyone in the field of contemporary art meets and deals with, once in a great while one meets a true rarity: an artist whose expression is intensely personal, whose work is a reflection of the celebrations and fears, joys and anxieties of a psyche that overflows with the demand for self-expression. Tom McCarthy is such an artist.

As a photographer, McCarthy travels around the world collecting images for others while subconsciously gathering impressions for his personal art, which over the years has ranged from painting to fabric constructions and most recently has taken the form of assemblage and sculpture, all frequently incorporating some form of photographs.

Regardless of the medium, McCarthy's art transforms its ordinary materials, and in the process often gives us glimpses of a man exploring his creative frontier, probing a mysticism rooted in a Catholic upbringing, and confronting the fear of an inevitable mortality despite the promises of eternal happiness from slick advertising messages that, ironically, the artist's alter ego helped to create.

McCarthy is a self-styled urban archeologist sifting through the castoffs of our society, discarded packages and abandoned machines that he combines into synergistic association, all in search of Ultimate Truths about mankind's vanity, mortality, and vulgarization of his own nobility and that of whatever deity he happens to be worshipping.




Statement
by Tom McCarthy

I would like to be viewed as a modern-day archeologist; I find that I am obsessed with the refuse of our society – rusted machines and time-worn family portraits – that to me are relics of items that once were useful or served a valuable purpose.

The discarded shoes and cigarette butts are the "bones" of our culture; some would call them trash, but to do so would be to ignore the rich associations that such objects can arouse in our memories. For me, these objects take on a mystical elevation that reveals their hidden poetry.

Among the most revered and poetic of these objects is the human bone, which has long held religious significance as the most enduring physical part of a person, the tangible evidence of one who has passed on. Thus the bones of saints and martyrs were vied for by cathedrals and religious orders as eternal reminders of the concepts they died for and continue to represent.

Bones and other archeological finds are my materials; my sculpture usually holds strong religious feelings for me. I hope that in our placebo-addicted society, these works will be viewed as satirical, but never mocking.

Finally, in the interest of furthering the presence of the artist, I want to offer my own bones, a piece of myself, to those collectors and institutions concerned with the fullest realization of the personal nature of these works of art. I would like my bones to act as a reminder to society that an artist's bones, after all, are but a shadow of his being –just as is his art.

Optional Purchase of the Artist's Bones (Copyright 1984)

1. As an added "signature" to any work of art produced by Tom McCarthy, the mail-order medical supply house human bone incorporated into the work will be replaced by the appropriate bone of the artist, at the option of the collector.

2. The fee for an artist's bone replacement will be determined by sequence of purchase; the first bone to be so placed is $100, with the price of each bone thereafter increasing by a $100 increment. Thus the second bone is $200, the third $300, and so on to bone number 206, which is $20,600. (The artist reserves the right to charge a premium for major bones, such as his jawbone or fibula.)

3. Bones will be delivered within 90 days after the death of the artist. A wait list is now in effect, on a first-come basis, while the legal implications of this art concept are being researched. All payments will be held in an escrow account until a legal agreement can be designed that will indemnify both the buyer and seller under federal, state and local statutes as well as governmental regulations. Bones of the artist will be insured against loss or damage, and collectors exercising this option will be named as beneficiaries in the amount of their option.

4. All collectors who participate in this option will be invited to a bone replacement ceremony, with complimentary bone replacement by artist's curator for transportable works and a presentation to owners of works not present at the ceremony, to be followed by an Irish wake, with appropriate refreshments compliments of the artist.


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