Ciara McNamara - Fast, Farm, Factory, Fresh

Ciara McNamara - Fast, Farm, Factory, Fresh

About Ciara McNamara

 

The Creative Process :

"Most recently I find myself in a similar routine of process for my artwork. I think for my work, since it’s meant to draw out questions and point to specific regimes involving factory farming and the waste industry mainly in combination with the current environmental crisis, the first sort of crucial step is research.

For my most recent series of work there was a decent deal of external research that was conducted through literature, film, other forms of media, as well as in conversation with people around me; just to better understand their opinions on such industries.

So from the research I gathered, I’m usually led to sketch out some kind of collage dynamic composition. The artwork itself does not have to be fully understood by its audience, but rather questioned. So I attempt to find the ways in which the art can catalyze questions. The imagery itself can be both enticing and digestible, while also striking a more unwilling nerve. As well as the acceptance to walk freely and making the mindful choice that we do to ignore these sort of terrors, that lurk below the ground, that at the same time we depend on to sustain the system that we live in. "

 

Inspiration and Introduction of the Artworks Exhibiting at Chelsea Walls :

"So I have two artworks currently on display at Chelsea Walls in the UNTITLED SUMMER show which are titled Vapes for Teens and Fast, Farm, Factory, Fresh.

The first piece Vapes for Teens, it's meant to push on the marketing of consumer goods in the United States. A friend of mine kindly donated a disposable vape for my reference, and the reason why I chose this specific object is because of its deliberate targeting of underaged consumers. I feel like it serves as a prime example of how powerful the marketing of an object can be despite every which way that object is exceptionally harmful.

And for the other painting, that’s  Fast, Farm, Factory, Fresh the imagery is meant to evoke commentary on sort of how catastrophically dangerous the fast food industry is. The central image of the painting is meant to represent times square, which to me was an adventurous excursion of my youth, my favorite part was to go ride the massive indoor Toys R Us ferris wheel featuring all the hottest toys on each cabin of the ferris wheel. Which I’m not sure is even still there currently, but in addition to that Times Square is also a prime example to me of the distracting bright lights of marketing, and all these exploding billboard pressures towards the hyper consumer.

So through this deeply compelling and invigorating dream land, which is above on the surface but then is below the surface compositionally is where you see all these animals that have been striped of their life, but not only that they’ve been modernized into the ultimate sort of unnatural inorganic system, transforming them into ultra processed foods and delivering them to food establishments where many communities across the United States are backed into due to their accessibility and affordability.

As if to say, you know, you can go and buy the ingredients to make your own hamburger from the grocery store, that might be 20 miles away, or drive to the Mcdonald’s a few minutes away and buy a big mac deluxe combo meal for a third of the price without having to even leave your car.

So through these sort of examples my paintings serve to better expose the systems in place through various expressive means."

 

Future Goals and Projects :

"So, for my last project that I worked on it was my thesis, which is called The Spectacle of Consumption I’m Lovin’ It, and it explored the history and current state of food industrialization in factory farming in the United States, as well as the impact of marketing both food and also single use objects, and the impact that these things have on waste and the overall environmental crisis or the state of the world. This is my first time really delving in deeply into researching these subjects. And my first time absorbing them into my art and really being consumed by them, within all of my art work and art making process.

Moving forward, I have recently found myself further mulling over the systems of production and distribution, more specifically of animals as food, as well as other foods such as corn and soybeans have been commodified.

I feel very excited to continue exploring the food industry in this way, finding novel, and engaging in forms of art making to better represent it."

 

Ciara McNamara's Fast, Farm, Factory, Fresh (2023) and Vape for Teens (2024) are Now on View at 231 10th Ave. 

 

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