Curios About: The Recovery by Emily Mc Gardle

The Recovery
By Emily Mc Gardle
Screenprint on newsprint
762 mm x 508 mm

1. This work is about . . . the Irish general election and Irish politics in 2016. This body of work should act as an archive for the 17-week period from the start of January to the end of April, which will cover the run-up to the general election, the election campaign, and its aftermath. Each week, a new screenprint in the format of a mock front page of a newspaper will be produced, which will present an overview of the week’s political stories, both significant and seemingly insignificant. Each will be an edition of 100.

2. I made this work because . . . I want to highlight the absurdity of the behaviour of some Irish politicians through the use of satire. Numerous news sources such as Waterford Whispers create fictitious news stories. I aim to present real news stories in such a farcical way that they appear to be made-up, while still being informative. It could be said that politicians tend to act irrationally during an election campaign, and serious news reporting is often unable to emphasise the sometimes ridiculous nature of election stories.

3. I hope when people see this work they will . . . consider the importance of the actions of politicians, how they speak and how they conduct themselves. If a politician is consistently making gaffes or causing controversy, even if these occurrences are seemingly innocuous and insignificant, they all add up. I would hope that people would take into consideration election candidates’ behaviour over the lifetime of the current Dáil, instead of what they may promise to do during an election campaign.

4. In terms of art history, this work . . . is connected to the mass production of work by artists such as Andy Warhol, because of the use of screenprinting to reproduce images. The relatively easy method of screenprinting allows for large editions to be printed rather quickly. This also references the large volumes of ephemera produced during elections: flyers, leaflets and posters.

5. You can see my work . . . The Recovery project, along with other work about Irish politics, is available to view on my website and Facebook page.

Curios About is a series featuring works by Dublin artists, curated for us by our friends at the Square in the Circle blog, and hosted there as well as here.

Each artist is asked to submit an image of one work and answer a set of questions about it. We’d love it if you’d submit something you’ve made.