ANTIBEAST
CAITLIN MCCORMACK Last Rites Gallery is proud to present crochet artist Caitlin McCormack’s first NYC solo exhibition, Antibeast, on view from April 27th - June 2nd, 2018. McCormack’s work features cotton-stringed bones of animals that are based on reality, but do not quite fit into it. She explores themes of transformation and retention of memory through her creatures, and in this exhibition examines the change on one’s body when physiological needs become neglected in favor of self actualization. McCormack’s process consists of studying animal structures, and recreating them from memory with allowance for her visual biases to warp the true forms of nature. Her preferred medium is simple cotton string, which she intricately crafts and stiffens with glue to produce a material similar to the microscopic makeup of delicate bone tissue. The practice through which she creates was inherited from loved ones, both living and deceased. Namely, her grandmother who was a talented crocheter, and grandfather who had been a bird carver. Combining their crafts allowed McCormack to better cope with their passing and honor their memory. The animals McCormack imagines represent events. Though, in the same way she creates — warping and changing the structure of existing organisms— the realities her works are based on are fragmented; thought about until they do not exist in a way standing true to reality. Simultaneously, her work is memorabilia and invention. Antibeast takes these ideas one step further; for the series, McCormack worked until her mind was content, shutting out other various needs in the meantime, and becoming a person she hardly recognized at times. The see-saw between impossible and familiar in the crotchet offers a parallel for the thin line the human mind creates to differentiate reality and fantasy. “This body of work has been heavily informed by the transformation that is undergone when the need to work usurps one’s drive to sleep, eat, or interact with the outside world. I found that when human forms were introduced into the taxonomy of creatures with which my work is fraught, this sense of having shut myself away from basic human existence seemed even more apparent. The intermingling of beasts and humanoid forms in this collection resonates with the uncanny moments in which I am very much myself yet, simultaneously, someone - or something - quite unfamiliar.”
ANTIBEAST
APRIL 27 - JUNE 2, 2018
EXCARNATE I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET, ANTIQUE GLOVE 18.25 X 18.25 X 2 INCHES
EXCARNATE II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET, ANTIQUE GLOVE 18.25 X 18.25 X 2 INCHES
SUFFOCATOR BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET IN VINTAGE FRAME 25.25 X 18.75 X 2.75 INCHES
ALLIGATA I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 20 X 19 X 3 INCHES
ALLIGATA II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 20 X 19 X 3 INCHES
GLORIA BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 33 X 25 X 4.5 INCHES
MORGELLONS BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 34 X 64 X 4 INCHES
PATRON I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, ENAMEL PAINT 35 X 25 X 4.5 INCHES
PATRON II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, ENAMEL PAINT 35 X 25 X 4.5 INCHES
WORLD BEFORE THE WAR I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 14 X 14 INCHES
WORLD BEFORE THE WAR II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 14 X 14 INCHES
CONJECTRIX I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 14 X 14 X 1.75 INCHES
CONJECTRIX II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET 14 X 14 X 1.75 INCHES
CROW I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, ENAMEL PAINT, WIRE 4 X 3 X 3 INCHES
CROW II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, ENAMEL PAINT, WIRE 4 X 3 X 3 INCHES
FREDERICK BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 11 X 5.5 X 5.5 INCHES
GHOST I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 5 X 4 X 4 INCHES
GHOST II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 5 X 4 X 4 INCHES
GRIPPE I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 8 X 5 X 5 INCHES
GRIPPE II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 8 X 5 X 5 INCHES
NETHERFESTER I BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET, ANTIQUE CLOCK CASE 20.5 X 14.5 X 5 INCHES
NETHERFESTER II BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET, ANTIQUE CLOCK CASE 17.5 X 11.75 X 4.5 INCHES
OVERDIRT BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, ENAMEL PAINT 17 X 13 X 2.25 INCHES
SECTUS BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, ENAMEL PAINT 22 X 16 X 4 INCHES
TEARAWAY BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, VELVET AND PLEXIGLASS IN ANTIQUE CABINET 23 X 16.25 X 5 INCHES
WOLFBITER BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, STEEL PINS, ENAMEL PAINT 21 X 13 INCHES
XEROPHYTE BY: CAITLIN MCCORMACK CROCHETED COTTON STRING, GLUE, WIRE 18 X 11 X 11 INCHES
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