Caribbean Pirates 2001-2005

The above photograph was taken from the multi-screen installation works of Paul McCarthy in collaboration with (son) Damon McCarthy. This installation was shown at the REDCAT Museum in Los Angeles. The work included large scale sculptures, video projections, color photographs, props and full scale film sets. Much of the sculptures were made of fiberglass and covered in chocolate sauce, ketchup, and fake blood, along with the objects and figures strewn about the setting. "This gargantuan project occupied the artist and his son, Damon McCarthy, and a huge crew of actors, builders, mechanics and film personnel over several years. The performance action that took place on the set included blood-gushing animatronic limb amputations, prosthetic nose-severings, belly-bursting tropical diseases and gang-bangs. Not to mention the catering-size cans of Hershey's Chocolate Sauce drooled and spattered absolutely everywhere. It's only chocolate, you might say and the action may be so knockabout as to be unbelievable, but this is still a theatre of cruelty, in the Hollywood Jacobean mode." - Adrian Searle, The Guardian.

Much of Peter McCarthy's works took the glitz and glam of Hollywood and the western consumer society and brought out the darker side of it. The idea for Caribbean Pirates came from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the Disney Land attraction. The difference being that the movies and Disney Land attraction are about fun and entertainment. McCarthy takes it to the extreme of gore and obscenity. The video projections shown along side the main sculptures show brutal scenes of invasion, mutilation and sale of women among other things. All of the events that took place on actual pirate ships. Even so, from the outside, the installation can still seem like a parody or spoof of some grotesque horror movie with all the masks and over emphasized costumes and pirate paraphernalia. But according to McCarthy and his son the work also has an undertone of references to the US invasion of Iraq, with some scenes alluding to prisoner abuse. Father and son suggest the pirate theme to be a metaphor for US invasion and occupation of foreign lands.

This particular artwork installation is very interesting to me. The way that it takes something so simple, like the Pirates of The Caribbean movies and the pirate theme in general, and brings it back down to its most basic level. It brings back into view the horror and reality of the events that actually took place during these times. Anymore, the idea of pirates has become so fantasized, dressed up, almost fun, when in reality what pirates were and what they did was none of these things. One of the most fascinating parts to me is the fact that Paul McCarthy took this idea of pirates and used it to represent the invasion of Iraq by the United States. After researching this artwork I can see the connection between the two, but upfront, not knowing anything about the artwork, that idea would never have crossed my mind.

Paul McCarthy and Damon McCarthy: "Caribbean Pirates" california institute of the arts." Home california institute of the arts. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. http://calarts.edu/events/22-nov-2008/paulmccarthyanddamonmccarthyquotcaribbeanpiratesquot.

Paul McCarthy at the S.M.A.K. - we make money not art." We make money not art. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. .