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Artist’s Fake Museum Explores Possible Future for the Planet

by ArtisAnn | Antrim

Afterwards is an installation of original work by New York born artist Tracy McCoey. Tracey is a qualified marine biologist and recently graduated with a Masters Degree from the School of Art at Ulster University.

 

The exhibition features a mini Victorian museum housing faux artefacts from an ambiguous time after a catastrophic climate event.  The artefacts refer to the ecological imbalance caused by human activity.

 

Growing up in Long Island, USA, the artist has memories of abundant numbers of crabs and birds on childhood beaches.  These are now in decline, due to human activity.

 

Tracey explains

 

“The basis of the narrative is founded on the horseshoe crabs that I played with as a child on the Long Island beaches.  They lined the high-water mark in abundance when they emerged to spawn.  Their copper-based sky-blue blood is extremely sensitive to bacterial contamination and reacts quickly and visibly, making it a perfect quality control test material for pharmaceutical companies.  Consequently, the blood is worth £15,000/litre. Their declining numbers has affected the population of the migratory Red Knot that fuels up on horseshoe crab larvae on their 14,000km journey from Patagonia to the Arctic Circle.  The disruption to this relationship has the potential to affect more than the crabs and the birds.”

 

The “museum” explores a possible restructuring of society that incorporates Native American principles for a more sustainable future.

 

The exhibition is part of the NI Science Festival

 

All artworks are available to buy.

 

You can also buy art from this exhibition through the Own Art scheme which gives you an interest-free loan over 10 months (and you still get to take the art home immediately the exhibition ends).

 

ArtisAnn Gallery, 70 Bloomfield Avenue, Belfast, BT5 5AE

Wed – Sat: 11am to 5.30pm

 

www.artisann.org