RACHY MCEWAN
Rachy McEwan is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher based in London. In 2020, she graduated with First Class Honors in a Bachelor of Fine Art in Painting and Printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art, where she was awarded the RSA New Contemporaries Award. More recently, she completed a Master's in Material Futures at UAL: Central Saint Martins with Distinction and was shortlisted for the Maison/0 LVMH Maison Award.
Rachy challenges traditional approaches to human perception through her work, which explores the interconnections between technology and environmental, political, and societal issues. By bridging the natural, artificial, and non-human worlds, she collaborates across disciplines such as engineering, arboriculture, and science to reshape our relationships with the land and more-than-human entities.
Her research and techno-sensual artistic practices foster new dialogues in cognition and machine learning. She introduces innovative concepts like the sensorial ecology of intelligence, the machine microbiome, machine ecosystems, and biological machines.
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THE ART OF LIVING ON A DAMAGED PLANET
2020
https://gsashowcase.net/rachy-mcewan/The Art of Living on a Damaged Planet explores the dissonance between the aesthetic value of consumer products and the environmental damage their production causes. It rethinks our relationship with desirable goods, highlighting the superficiality of consumerism within a capitalist framework and the environmental harm caused by waste.
The project challenges societal ideologies about consumerism, desire, and identity, questioning the difference between force-sold goods and natural buying urges. It began with the realisation that experimental studio practices contribute to environmental waste. Mindfulness in creating new work became essential, exposing this internal conflict to viewers and reminding them of environmental damage.
Inspired by Alison Hulme's On the Commodity Trail, which discusses the capitalist cycle of commodities, the project traces products back to their raw materials, revealing their origins and materiality. Experiments produced artwork depicting 'fake' replicas of designer products alongside 'real' ones, questioning their place in hyper-capitalism.
Research on human-disturbed landscapes and climate change's impact on fungi, influenced by Anna Tsing's The Mushroom at the End of the World, led to incorporating mushrooms into the work. Tsing's exploration of multi-species extinctions and the resilience of mushrooms provided insight into coexistence within environmental disturbance.Using Mycelium, a sustainable material known for creating faux leather, as a sculptural medium symbolised living responsibly. Covering 3D prints of trainers with Mycelium highlighted the fragility and vulnerability of consumer-driven products.Combining readymade designer products and fungi in paintings and sculptures, the project addresses the destructive impact of capitalism on the environment.
The Art of Living on a Damaged Planet questions whether society is defined by consumption or by the choices available, which are products of consumerism. The goal is to raise awareness, educate, and inspire reconsideration of consumer choices, encouraging public discussion on the impacts of population pressures and industrial land degradation.