MORE LIFE: Lydia McCarthy

MORE LIFE

NEW PHOTOS AND VIDEO BY LYDIA MCCARTHY
October 15 – November 21
opening reception, Friday October 15, 6-9pm

Lydia McCarthy’s latest Lump show splits into two bodies of work that are both based in morse code signal for help, SOS. Her video series, Life After Death, pinpoints the desperation and boredom that Covid 19 imposed upon Lydia, as she dot-dot-dot-dash-dash-dashes her way through bizarre games, self-help rituals, and feminist texts, captured in vivid colors and performed with intimacy and great humor.

Send Nudes is a photographic series that reveals Lydia’s practice in uproarious selfie-indulgence. Here, she presents a vast array of nude selfies that were intended to lure prospects from Tinder, Hinge, and Instagram. But what is at first glance a predacious act, quickly devolves into desperation and, once again, the SOS emerges. The constant repetition and revision of each lurid pose wanders afield from the empowerment and independence that selfies might invoke. Instead, we start to see conflict, indecision; a snake eating its tail.