Melbourne-based artist and 2024 Paddington Art Prize finalist Margaret McIntosh turns her focus to the overlooked landscapes of urban waste in Placky Bags. This new body of work draws a striking parallel between the sprawl of hard rubbish piles and the ritual of crows picking at a carcass — both acts of transformation, where the discarded becomes sustenance or something new.
McIntosh’s practice delves into the narratives of the everyday, symbolism in domesticity, and the fragility of the human condition. In Placky Bags, she invites viewers to reconsider their relationship with consumption and waste, asking what might be possible if we reimagined what we call “dead, broken or done.”
A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and recipient of the Maude Gover Fleay Award, McIntosh also holds a Master of Art Therapy from Latrobe University.
Opening Event: Saturday 30 August, 2–4pm, with the artist in attendance.
Image: Margaret McIntosh, Back of Woolies #2, 62 x 52.5 cm, oil on board, 2024.
