EVACUATE, 2010

Kate MccGwire’s Evacuate plays with the historicism of the mansion - this time focusing on the “behind the scenes” world of the kitchens. Thousands of locally sourced bird feathers, each taken from a species regularly cooked in the house ovens, are reassembled to create a new, uncanny “creature”. Horrifyingly beautiful, the installation suggests a new (or perhaps ancient) and menacing presence emanating from the cast iron oven. Coiling, pluming and creeping through the kitchen, the work feels weighty, meaty. The visitor is at once taken by the gorgeousness of the piece itself - the assemblage of “common” feathers presented as something completely exotic - and the shame involved in discarding objects of beauty in favour of a perfunctory dinner.

- Excerpt from Tatton Park Biennial catalogue

Mixed media installation with game feathers
120 x 400 x 350 cm

Exhibited
TATTON PARK BIENNIAL, Tatton Park, Cheshire, UK, 8 May - 26 September 2010
HOUSE OF BEASTS, curated by Meadow Arts, Attingham Park, Shropshire, UK, 2 July 2011 - 15 July 2012

Photos: Jonty Wilde