Souvenirs of the Wasteland

Friday, 21 July through Sunday, 24 September, 2023

Caitlin McCormack & Katharine Ryals

This summer at Elijah Wheat opening for Upstate Art Weekend in Newburgh, NY, artists Caitlin McCormack and Katharine Ryals will present a museum of unnatural history—a curated glimpse of the world left behind after human intervention. In this installation, microplastics have usurped the Hall of Gems; the Great Pacific Garbage Patch drifts triumphant as a continent—terra firma on a planet mankind has rendered uninhabitable. McCormack and Ryals offer a survey of what thrives in the Anthropocene’s wake: mutant lifeforms melded with garbage, eerie radioactive hues, and dark odes to effluvium, ephemera, fast fashion, and immortal trash. 

This retrospective analysis of human behavior communed through the waste we have left behind assumes the form of flashy, bizarre trash objects meticulously crafted by Ryals and McCormack. Since mid-2020, the pair have been developing a collaborative project concerning climate change, presented as a speculation into the nature of the artifacts and fossils our species might leave behind if a more sustainable path for the future is not forged. Together, they present a pseudoscientific display of human vestiges, chronicles the waning of human existence and an influx of strange, new lifeforms. 

Ryals’ contribution to this exhibition will be a series of faux foliage sculptures appearing simultaneously dead and alive. Her glittery, fleshy greenhouse emanates industrial, unnatural colors on the surfaces of synthetic plant leaves. Foliage is embroidered with veins and adorned with silicone, glitter, beads, junk jewelry, synthetic hair, and fabrics. Ryals has also constructed a planetarium complete with orbs suspended in the form of a mobile display, as well as a series of found artifacts and fossil-like sculptures fashioned from molding/casting processes, presented in display vitrines.

Through delicate crochet, McCormack has created a series of complex, wall-mounted rhizospheres depicting hybridized plant and animal forms, illustrating a world in which the byproducts of memory, decay, and waste have synthesized into a unified system. She also constructed multiple sculptures of humanoid appendages sprouting antlers and protrusions reminiscent of cordyceps fungi. These items are similarly displayed in the idiom of an outmoded museum display, to be viewed in the round. McCormack’s heavily textured depictions of organic lifeforms meld with shapes gleaned from science fiction, producing disconcerting images of futuristic earthly inhabitants. 

Together, the artists have also created collaborative artworks functioning as didactics and exhibition design elements within the museum; writer Cara Marsh Sheffler is providing curatorial wall text for the exhibit and cultural historian Celeste Olalquiaga is contributing an essay for the show’s catalog.  Opening to the public on Friday, 21 July for Upstate Art Weekend with a celebration 6:00-10:00 PM that night.  On Saturday, 22 July a “Museum Tour” and artist talk begins at 5:00PM. The exhibition will close Sunday, 24 September, 2023

UPSTATE ART WEEKEND EVENTS:

FRIDAY 21 July 2023// 18:00-22:00: Nightmare at the Museum Elijah Wheat hosts a celebration on the Newburgh riverfront with a site-specific reception for the work of artists: Caitlin McCormack & Kat Ryals and their installation "Souvenirs of the Wasteland." Enjoy a dance party in a presentation referencing a museum of unnatural history—a curated glimpse of the world left behind after human intervention. In this installation, microplastics have usurped the Hall of Gems; the Great Pacific Garbage Patch drifts triumphant as a continent—terra firma on a planet mankind has rendered uninhabitable. Libations will be served.

SATURDAY 22 July 2023 // 17:00-18:30 : Museum Tour with artists Caitlin McCormack and Kat Ryals along with writer, Cara Sheffler who contributed wall text for the show, will be present and this event will serve as an 'artists' talk.' Enjoy the behind the scenes intentions of the exhibition while escorted through the site-specific installation. McCormack and Ryals offer a survey of what thrives in the Anthropocene’s wake: mutant lifeforms melded with garbage, eerie radioactive hues, and dark odes to effluvium, ephemera, fast fashion, and immortal trash. All adventure seekers, scavenger-hunt aficionados and playfully curious minds welcome.

Kat Ryals (b. 1988) Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, is a Brooklyn-based artist, curator, and photographer whose work is often influenced by her Cajun roots and Catholic upbringing. Ryals received a BFA in Photography from Savannah College of Art and Design and an MFA & Adv. Certificate in Museum Education from Brooklyn College. She has shown her work nationally, including in a solo booth at SPRING/BREAK Art Show in 2020 and 2022, a two person show at Ortega Y Gasset Projects in 2022, and in recent group exhibitions with ChaShaMa, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, and The Wassaic Project. She has also completed several artist residencies, including the Wassaic Project (2017, 2019, 2022), ChaNorth (2019), Peter Bullough Foundation (2021), and a Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center (2018). She is the Co-founder of the online arts platform, PARADICE PALASE, based out of Brooklyn and was recently the Curator of Art for famed nightlife and culture venues House of X at PUBLIC and House of Yes.

Caitlin McCormack (b. 1988) is a Philadelphia-based fiber artist who has participated in solo and group exhibitions at The Mütter Museum, Museum Rijswijk (NL), Mesa Contemporary Art Museum, The Taubman Museum of Art, Hashimoto Contemporary, The Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Feinkünst Krüger (DEU), Vanilla Gallery (JP), Rhodes Contemporary (UK), Field Projects, MoCA Westport, and SPRING/BREAK Art Show in NYC. Their work has appeared in publications including Juxtapoz, Hyperallergic, Smithsonian, The Guardian, Whitehot Magazine, Fiber Art Now, and Bust Magazine, and their sculptures were the subject of an interview with Jim Cotter for Articulate on PBS. McCormack has worked as an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and Hussian College of Art and Design. They completed artist residencies at ChaNorth (NY), The Peter Bullough Foundation (VA), and The Wassaic Project (NY), and received a Joseph Robert Foundation grant in 2021.

Elijah Wheat Showroom (est. 2015) is a New York-based artist-run gallery and nomadic curatorial experience founded by Carolina Wheat & Liz Nielsen. Currently located in Newburgh, NY on the Hudson River in a 3000 sq/ft Kunsthalle. The gallery is named after their late son, Elijah, whose creative insight, righteous vision, perceptive being and stylistic voice for trendsetting embody the spirit that the Showroom honors. EWS artists are socially conscientious, politically engaged and reflective of a creative community striving to cultivate interactions and instigate conversations. We promote the diversity of artists' voices with contemplative messages, daring to consider programming outside a commercial focus aimed to engage as a community space by advocating for visual art’s accessibility to all audiences.