Sam Mulcahy, Tetnesteii longus aedifićatió argentum (detail), 2023, steel. brass, 95 x 72 x 28cm. Photo: Sam Mulcahy
First solo exhibition by a rising regional-based artist drawn to nature and its geometry and determined to only use recycled materials.
“Amidst the ruins of a once thriving civilisation, the opportunistic genus tetnesteii slowly reclaims the decimated landscape, utilising the waste of a long-gone destructive species. With soils teeming with pollution from this brief yet devastating period, the tetnesteiis have opted for a more toxic diet than their plant-based ancestors. They care not for the numerous mistakes of that species’ past; they simply want to just get on with it.” Sam Mulcahy exhibition statement 2023
Samuel Mulcahy seeks to transmute junk into art, to give value to the undervalued and to revive abandoned refuse. He combines materials of different origins to represent the leaves, branches, and trunks of unknowable plants. Discarded copper, brass, plastic, reinforcing rods, steel, spent ammunition casings, guttering and old hot water systems have come to a bizarre and beautiful kind of life. Rust, stains, burn marks, oxidisation and paint colour these works.
What lessons can be drawn from our wasting of natural resources? Can nature be reflected in the way waste materials show us natural beauty and human ugliness? By reinterpreting the function of common objects, Sam’s ingenious sculptures tell us how art, nature, refuse and humour can reinterpret what we see. Leonard Cohen Dip. T BA, October 2023
Mulcahy is based in Clayton Bay, South Australia and was mentored by the celebrated Annabelle Collett. His practice has included mural painting, mosaics, sculpture and ephemeral installations, as well as constructing painting machines and performing live with them.
Murray Bridge Regional Gallery is pleased to simultaneously present Botanical Armour with Annabelle Collett’s exhibition ReDress.
