Chop Yo Head Off (Heads R Gonna Roll) - Marcia Wood Gallery

Marcus Kennedy’s collages humorously illustrate the high price we pay for our frenzy of accumulation.Using canceled checks as the background for his works, Kennedy creates surreal narrativelandscapes that question the consequences of constant consumption. A drought-ridden landscape isthe backdrop for Manna, in which an ape and a caveman flank a huge mountain of food and domesticproducts. Another ape sits at the base of the mountain with his arms at his chest, as if in warning. In thedistance a volcano erupts and the Earth appears in the sky like a moon or sun. Is this landscape anotherplanet where life begins again? A commentary on the future, in which a single ape guards a pile of foodhe can’t possibly consume while others look on? Kenney’s work is loaded with dry humor and cuttingcommentary on the human condition: the ape’s pile of goods is topped with a cherry; the food directlyin front of him is an ice cream sundae. The desert environment appears again in The Secret is Out, inwhich a turkey vulture perches on top of a mound of Earth-like globes, stacked like a farmer’s discardedstones, in a landscape that sustains little but cacti and a hissing snake. The message of wasted possibilitiesand ignored warnings is unmistakable. Kenney’s use of remnant materials that he acquires fromdumpsters around his home in Atlanta heightens the feeling of failed history. Wallpaper samples, oldbooks, and labels from unused products provide raw material for nostalgic imagery that is also a commentaryon a society whose wealth is reflected in the luxurious disposal of outdated materials.The American Heritage dictionary defines greed as “an excessive desire to acquire or possess,as wealth or power, beyond what one needs or deserves.” For the purposes of this exhibition and project,we have thought about greed as a kind of hypnotic force that drives people, governments and businessesto acquire money or goods at the expense of other values that drive humanity. Our desire forgoods seems to be superseding our desire for interaction, knowledge or community. Many artists in thisexhibition see the global marketplace as fodder for a discussion about how we have come to define ourselves.Profit & Loss (catalogue excerpt)Kristin Poole, CuratorSun Valley Center for the ArtsMay 26 - July 27, 2007