Seamus O’Rourke
b. 1964, Ireland
The urban landscape provides me with a compressed environment from which I can reflect upon Ireland’s changing status, and within this the individual’s identity.
Cash and Wrap is one of a series of recent paintings that investigates a prevalent desire to acquire, and its dissemination into all areas of Irishness. A playful translation of a queue of shoppers waiting to pay in a typical high street superstore, it aims to reflect upon a predominant need to attain. The title of the piece evokes an air of conformity to consumerism. The shiny, symmetrically tight composition of the diptych also attempts to mimic the constant bombardment of projected realities from the mass media, continually fuelling our need to have, which, in reality, is often impossible. How this all combines to influence how we construct and present our identities, as well as our opinion of others, is also a key concern of the work.
(Text: OPEN e v + a catalogue, 2005)
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