Matthew J McConville

"Topia, Utopia, Dystopia" was an installation exploring the theme of societies real, and imaginary. It was installed at the gallery at Baltimore County Community College in Catonsville. It used large ovals of wallpaper with plant motifs hung on walls painted pink and pale blue. Each of the wallpaper ovals were 4' x 6'.Arcadian, futurist, and dysfunctional ideas were mixed together using a Rococo/Modernist language. Rococo art and design references both an attempt to dream up a world where people lived peacefully together in nature, and conversely of a period when the rich walled themselves off from the rest of society in order to create this illusion. Themes of birth and death, the fecund earth, creativity, and humor were also present. A less obvious theme but something that was on my mind was how people use nature as a raw material for art and design. We can't resist improving it, simplifying it, or ordering it.