Boreen Point
The idea of escaping probably most commonly conjures thoughts of fleeing – of getting out of here. But there is another kind of escape – one where you stay put and just keep your head down – dig in until the coast is clear.
While many animals will try to flee from an approaching fire, some – like the echidna or wombat or even some spiders – often burrow underground to escape approaching danger. The echidna actually changes the state its body exists in – slowing its heart rate and breathing – until the threat passes.
There’s a parallel to this survival instinct in Ruby McCarthy’s work. Her charred totems evoke the burned, tired landscape of the Australian bush after a fire, while their form is punctuated by carefully excavated hollows in the wood. These spaces reveal a series of delicate webs made of fine bronze-plated chain – paradoxically robust and fragile all at once. Crafted as spaces for refuge, McCarthy proposes that removing oneself from a place of peril erases both the threat and those things of value in a community and a culture. Perhaps the path to escape is better realised in embracing a creative approach to retreat – not out and away, but in – burrowing in to beautify and remedy the places we already find ourselves in.
For what it’s worth, the wombat burrow also provides refuge for other animals.
ARTIST BIO
Ruby McCarthy is an emerging artist and creative in Meanjin, Brisbane. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) at QUT. She works across a range of visual, written and audio mediums to make subversive and challenging statements about queerness, religiosity, and the female experience.
Blackened wood and chain forms show that escape can mean going inward—finding strength, safety, and beauty where we already are.
