Artist: Megan Rooney
Exhibition title: Animals on the bed
Venue: Seventeen, London, UK
Date: June 3 – July 23, 2016
Photography: images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Seventeen, London
“She wasn’t really sure about his love life. No sex. Well yes but no. Laughing laughing laughing. Birds land on your shoulder. Killing time. Laying on the floor next to a stuffed animal. Letting your hair get greasy. Dying you hair. Ordering coke with ice. Living longer then you can afford.”
Megan Rooney’s practice is filled by soft, grotesque bodies performing rituals and lifestyle. Porcine faces and abject bodies are implied by painted lips and thick eyelashes, suggestions of a distorted femininity hide in mushy blue and pink environments. Her practise unfolds across painting and floating murals, written and spoken word, sculpture and installation, presenting the viewer with characters in recognisable social settings and familiar awkward-moments. The paintings and objects in this exhibition are linked by a meditative monologue, which produces an accumulation of imagery, short phrases depicting snatches of suburban life. Rooney marks the gallery space as foreign territory, contrasting physical and emotional states drift through, whilst bodies are beset by confrontation and pollution.
Megan Rooney, Untitled (Cat litter boxes), 2016
Cat litter boxes, litter, LED roses, Variable dimension
Megan Rooney, Untitled (Cat litter boxes), 2016
Cat litter boxes, litter, LED roses, Variable dimension
Megan Rooney, Memorial park at sunset, 2016
Pastel, pencil, acrylic, oil pastel on canvas, 164 x 225 cm
Megan Rooney, Hairless, rough and sensitive, 2016
Pencil, ink, pastel & acrylic paint on magazine pages in artist’s frame, 83 x 66 cm
Megan Rooney, Your blue dream, my two left feet, 2016
Pastel, pencil, acrylic, oil pastel on canvas, 150 x 215 cm
Megan Rooney, Untitled, 2016
Pastel, pencil, acrylic, oil pastel on canvas, 150 x 215 cm
Megan Rooney, It was dude perfect under the bridge, 2016
Pastel, pencil, acrylic, oil pastel on canvas, 157 x 225 cm
Megan Rooney, Papier-mâché head of a goddess, 2016
Acrylic, marker, ink, crayon, pencil, oil pastel on papier-mâché, cotton string, Variable dimension