* "THE DEEP FUTURE"
Composed not, from the Gist of the last three Years or Decades of the same Number, but from the Collective of the last three Centuries, which were devoted to nothing less than the Restoration of the last three Millenniums.
"THE DEEP PAST"
Back date: 2328

In spring 1998, the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont had the pleasure to make you discover the whole work of the artists´ couple MacDermott & MacGough within an exhibition called Europa. The Lust that Comes from Nothing. This show gathered installation, painting and photograph, and unveiled the particularly noticed series of 10 canvases entitled The Conspiracy Paintings.

Both artists are certainly the last Dandies nowadays since they perfectly embody this term. "Elegant men who associate to the sartorial sophistication an affection of spirit and impertinence" suits very well their own personalities. They refuse to live in the present time. Actually, being true heirs of the last century´s Dandies (and, moreover, Warhol Factory´s aficionados), they choose to live in what they see as their most favorable period, namely that of Oscar Wilde or Marcel Proust. Being dressed in gaiters or Victorian tails is not a sterile reaction against progress but an existential provocation of any instant, because, according to them, "all time exists at the same time..." They establish a simultaneous link between present, past and future, strongly refusing all time indications that they consider as a pure invention of human mind and therefore as non existing. An experience of Time that allows to stand aloof from the actuality within our own century.

As well as their way of life, the works of MacDermott & MacGough, photographic or painted, are fascinating. The obsessional negation of any chronological references exists in the mixing of subjects (candle portraits, advertisements illustrations, fashion pictures, Epinal riddles...) and of styles (Surrealism, Dadaïsm, Pop Art, etc., all combined in outdated and always very structured compositions), which they choose to resurrect in their creations.

MacDermott & MacGough have unveiled their brand new works in this new exhibition "The Deep Future... The Deep Past", which concept is: "It is revealed to a Select, that twenty Years Time is the Limit to which Human Civilization can Persevere in the Formula hence employ´d. Here is presented the Information vital to mak´g a consideration of the transformative Times that Human Kind now Experiences. What remains of this Time on Earth´s Future, TARA 2328, is Fragmentary, Illusive, Decorative, CHAOS being lost in Chaos; Artistry distinguished alone from Technological Catastrophy. ".

Have been exhibited:

- About thirty watercolours (very rare in MacDermott & MacGough´s work).
- Some colour crayon drawings, in the vein of fashion advertisements representations from the beginning of this century.
- Paintings, proving how much MacDermott & MacGough reach peaks in the plastic quality of their oil painting, never losing anything of their concepts´ subversive strength, thanks to an incredible technical skill and to their encyclopedic knowledge of art history.
- Their new photographs, always realized with the techniques of the last century pioneers, as cyanotypes or bichromate gum prints.