Rich McIsaac : This Is Not Your Land

Rich McIsaac
This Is Not Your Land

October 2013

“As long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.” – Frank Zappa

This Land Is Not Your Land is the first solo exhibition by multidisciplinary artist Rich McIsaac. This Land playfully challenges our widely held beliefs of property ownership through an investigative series of collages, crayon drawings, photographs, sculpture and video that reveal a youthful drive to defy boundaries. The title derives without contempt for the famous Woody Guthrie song “This Land Is Your Land.” Instead, the artist imagines what exists beyond the “nothing” Guthrie sings of being found “on the other side of a No Trespassing sign.” While the environmental imagery of This Land is staged to evoke a grand scale respect for Nature (the wealth within and how to enjoy it), McIsaac’s humorous, graphic language and collages of passive-aggressive signage poke fun at the many mundane attempts on Man’s part to protect his Ego.

Rich McIsaac is an artist, writer and graphic designer. He currently lives in Philadelphia, PA, where he is a working member of the Space 1026 collective. He has a Bachelor of Graphic Design from North Carolina State University and is also part of Team Lump.

Lump is located at 505 S. Blount St, Raleigh, NC. More information about our mission and exhibition programs can be found at lumpprojects.org.