american artist paul mccarthy has spent much of his career critiquing and exploring western society’s obsessions – its mass media, popular culture and icons of its consumer, entertainment and art industries. in reaction to the excesses of consumer capitalism, ‘disneyfied’ banality and misplaced feelings of entitlement, mccarthy has developed a subversive vocabulary that twists, perverts and exaggerates the world around him to a heightened and crazed state.

paul mccarthy ship of fools image © designboom

 

 

for the occasion of the 17th biennale of sydney, he has produced a new sculpture, which premiered at pier 2 / 3, walsh bay. entitled ‘ship of fools, ship adrift 2’, 2010, the sculpture is a contemporary rephrasing of the medieval allegory, depicting a world of power without principle as the ship and its denizens hurtle obviously towards their own destruction. constructed from foam, the child like faces of the caricatured inhabitants float dumbly above the ship that sports an implausible gun barrel mounted on its prow.

paul mccarthy ship of fools view of the inplausible gun barrel mounted on the prow of the ship image © designboom

paul mccarthy ship of fools image © designboom

paul mccarthy ship of fools detail of structural components image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 front view of the ship image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 containers of foam image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 side view image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 up close of caricatured faces image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 foam child-like faces hang above image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 up close of the side of the ship image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 the sculpture is set atop a carpeted platform image © designboom

paul mccarthy: ship of fools, ship adrift 2 one of the child-like faces of the caricatured inhabitants image © designboom