Christopher McNulty: Marking Presence

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

10

Image List

01 — 20,662 Days (2006), Graphite on paper, 22”x22” After consulting an actuary to determine my life expectancy, I used the (probable) number of days that I had left to live as the starting point for this series of sixteen pieces. Composed of repetitive markings, these works visually represent the remainder of my life and function as contemporary vanitas. 

02 — 20,589 Days (2006), Graphite on paper, 18”x18” Each work in this series is composed of over 20,000 marks and uses different media, formats, and processes to represent my probable life expectancy. 

03 — 20,534 Days (2006), Graphite on paper, 18”x18”

04 — 20,270 Days (2006), Burnt paper, 22”x22” This piece was created by burning the paper with a stylus. I was interested in the metaphor of life as a kind of flame and even the more literal sense of the biological consumption of life. I was also interested in the paradox that it is a process of methodical destruction that leads to the creation of the work.

 05 — 20,249 Days (2006), Dart holes paper, 42”x42” In this piece, I threw darts to mark each remaining day and to explore the relationship between chance and control, presence and absence, destruction and creation. 

06 — 20,193 Days (2007), Burnt paper, 22”x22” 

07 — 20,183 Days (2007), Ink on paper, 22”x22”

08 — 20,045 Days (2007), Ink on paper, 71”X71” At just short of 6 feet square, this work is by far the largest in the series and the least abstract. Using an inkpad, I printed my index finger to create each mark in the piece. With the fingerprint’s connotations of identity and grasping, I was interested in the ideas of making a mark, proving one’s presence and existence, and representing the attempt to hold on to and possess each day. 

09 — 20,097 Days (2007), Saline on canvas, 16”x16” Searching for alternative media for the series, I began this work by determining the salinity of human tears. Using a burette, I delivered one teardrop onto the canvas for each day. Nearly invisible in this image, under gallery lights a 10” halo glistens from where the salt water splashed onto and soaked into the canvas before evaporating and crystallizing. 

10 — 19,476 Days (2008), Graphite on paper, 22”X22”  This final work takes a slightly different approach from other works in the series. Instead of marking just the days remaining in my life, I first created a mark for every day in my life, lived or unlived, and then proceeded to erase all of those already lived.

“Much of our knowledge must always remain uncertain. The most we can know is in terms of probabilities.” Richard Feynman, Lectures on Physics.

Several years ago, I consulted an actuary to determine my life expectancy. Using the probable number of days that I had left to live as my starting point, I created works composed of over 20,000 repetitive marks in an attempt to represent the remainder of my life and comprehend my mortality. Like unconventional calendars, these drawings and sculptures both represent time spatially and function as contemporary vanitas. These works continue my earlier concerns with the vulnerability of the body, and the relationship of beauty to the imperfect and contingent. In their absurd attempt to make the invisible visible, the unknowable known, and the uncertain certain, the works also address our culture’s anxiety about the future and death.

Bio

Christopher McNulty is a visual artist who creates sculptural objects, video, and works on paper. His work has explored the limitations of human thought and performance, and the tensions that exist between our ideals and everyday lives. His current work explores how environmental space penetrates the body, creating relationships among individuals, species, and objects. He has exhibited work in galleries and museums throughout the U.S., including the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Rochester Art Center, and Saltworks Gallery in Atlanta. His diverse art practice has been featured in many publications including Art Papers, New American Paintings, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, and The Week.

McNulty has received many grants and awards including a Hemera Foundation Fellowship, Alabama State Council on the Arts Grant, Madison CitiARTS grant, and Rowland Fellowship. He has completed artist residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Marble House Project, the Hambidge Center, and the Vermont Studio Center. A dual citizen of France and the US, McNulty holds an MFA degree from the University of Wisconsin and is currently Professor of Art at Auburn University.