Stockroom Kyneton, Gallery One
15 March / 02 May 2021

MICHAEL CARNEY
Roadside Picnic: past, present and future all at once (Solo Exhibition)

The title Roadside Picnic comes from the 1971 Russian science fiction novel of the same name. In a section of the book the discovery of alien artefacts that hold mystical powers is discussed. One character ponders deeply why the objects were left for us. The other suggests that whilst the leftover objects could be powerful and valuable to humans, they were most likely broken pieces of spacecraft or food discarded after a roadside picnic on the aliens’ travels across the universe. This parable exposes how as humans we elevate our importance in how we see the world. There is a sublime terror felt when comparing the life span of the human race in relation to the incomprehensible scale of this ever expanding infinite universe. This Exhibition is a playful exploration of time and our relation to it. Human concepts of an end or apocalypse, nuclear mythology, and speculative science fiction are firmly embedded in this body of work.

Michael Carney is an emerging artist from Adelaide, South Australia. Completing a Masters by Research (Visual Arts) at the University of South Australia in 2016. His Paintings and Ceramics often play with the aesthetics and philosophies of decadence and decay in something akin to a contemporary romanticism. He is currently a tenant and ceramics teacher at the JamFactory centre of contemporary craft and design.

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