Past, Present, Future
Iteration III

The LAB Gallery, Dublin
July-August 2022

The third installation by artist Catherine McDonald as part of her onoing series Past, Present, Future.

Each iteration of this work unfolds the narrative of five clay creatures and their journey to achieve immortality. Their goal is to fuse their bodies to the planet through fossilization, and to combine themselves with flora in the hopes of successful reproduction. In this way, they exist in the past, the present and the future, escaping their fear of oblivion.

This exhibition marked the third iteration of this narrative. The creatures had emerged from the Earth and were now in the process of growth, fusion and decay. The installation space was a travelling and fluctuating ecosystem, evolving in time with the natural materials from which it was borne. It included clay which had fallen from cliffs along the Irish coast, and common Irish plants such as dandelions and clovers. It also incorporated limestone, suggesting planetary history and the fossilization process.

Past, Present, Future: Iteration III presents a mini landscape, both familiar and unfamiliar. The narrative is speculative, but remained rooted in the rhythms of the Earth. It evoked a new world, yet was shaped by the elemental substances which sustain life.

Exhibition photography by Louis Haugh.