How to Look through Time

This new body of work by artist Penny McCarthy explores how the passage of time affects our perception and interpretation of images. McCarthy draws inspiration from The Submersion of Pharaoh’s Army in the Red Sea, a monumental woodcut designed by Titian ca. 1514-1515, printed around 1549. Produced in Venice, the biblical scene contains political undertones relevant to the time and society in which it was made. McCarthy has spent countless hours carefully studying every detail of the work, producing her own drawing, Pentimento, in response. In doing so she asks what happens to an image when it is re-encountered, and when its original frame of reference is undone? Fragmented sheets of Titian’s work are shown alongside McCarthy’s new drawing, which brings them together again in one image. A new film reflects on the span of time separating the two artists and creates an interplay between artworks and the museum store. In The Light of Other Years, sculptures cast from tree branches transform and preserve once living organic matter in glass. Other works on display examine time through the slow, introspective process of drawing. McCarthy’s expansive seascapes and depictions of the cosmos give the impression of timelessness and eternity, while references to archival materials reflect efforts to understand the past.