Anna McCarthy at SPERLING

Artist: Anna McCarthy

Exhibition title: ADVENTURE ROOM

Venue: SPERLING, Munich, Germany

Date: February 14 – April 4, 2020

Photography: ©the artist. Courtesy of SPERLING, Munich. Photos by Sebastian Kissel

There it is the train. It stands there. Ten more minutes, then five. With a heartfelt promise that 170 people and their equipment can stand amongst their own colourful, lightly flammable, materials. And, by the way, do you know how somebody can be so stupid as to put their anorak on the heater? A wood-panelled room, oh no, or even a larch casket installed above the heating as insulation to prevent draughts? This is bound to bring us to fame someday. – In the Alps, Elfriede Jelinek

Ice, Anarchy & The Pursuit of Madness. (1) An indication of addiction increase. Pupils dilate. McCarthy has spent the last years analysing, collecting, storing and preserving objects left behind by the living or dead in land-, and mainly, mountainscapes. Her collection includes remnants from Montserrat, Ranthambore, Cerro Provincia, Arco, Chamonix, Uriellu, Chiavenna and from the Laguna Capri, amongst others. The accompanying visual and acoustic logbook consisting of text, drawings, films, music and field recordings surrounding the topic of experiencing nature lay the foundation for ADVENTURE ROOM. McCarthy’s own impressions mix with eclectic references to Petrarca, Aleister Crowley’s murderous expeditions, Ecstatic Confessions, health and self-optimization bibles, the phenomenon of the “Third Man” hallucinations to the legend of the summit-cross sawyer. For ADVENTURE ROOM the artist builds modern reverent memorials within an almost orchestrated playground of coincidence and accident. The levels of intoxication are heightening. Loss of control is nigh. A game of power, people and the forces of nature. Exaltation, veneration, illusion and delusion. The new revolution occurs in nature. The landscape is political territory. Everyone wants to survive. Anarchists as well as right wing nationalists. Escapism entices. Make a fire, tie knots, plant vegetables, spin gravel, ration, consume. Scarpa, Scarpa, La Sportiva.

♫ Oh ropes and belts, oh ropes and belts, oh ropes and belts ♫ (2)

I ought to have broken the doctor’s leg with an axe, but I was too young to take such a responsibility. It would have been hard to prove afterwards that I had saved him by so doing. – Aleister Crowley (occultist, novelist, and mountaineer)

Until now McCarthy’s dealings with nature include works such as Bored Rebels in Zillertal, Shelters, Shacks Shanties, Drink Cold Piss Warm, the music performance What Are People For? and in the music of her band MOON NOT WAR.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHHGp5ot9YY2

[2] Lyrics from McCarthy’s song “Climbing” with MOON NOT WAR.