Of mice and Macca's: art's new meaning in old materials

Perth Now

07-06-2025

A McDonald's sign blown away by wild winds and gnawed on by rodents during an epic mouse plague may seem like rubbish to most.
But to emerging rural artist Clementine Belle McIntosh, the clapped-out McCafe tarpaulin banner is a vivid symbol of the tensions between consumerism and the environment.
McIntosh used the advertisement in a piece called Out Of Home, adding layers of papier mache made from old copies of the Gilgandra Weekly newspaper and colour from avocado and onion skins.
The four-metre tall work is the centre of her first major exhibition, Sowing and Sewing, at the Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo, western NSW, until September.
"I thought it was very poignant about the concepts of global and local exchange," McIntosh told AAP of the McDonald's sign.
The 25-year-old's neighbour, a farmer named Doug, gave her the tarp years after he found it blown down by the roadside and used it to cover his grain store during the 2020 mouse plague.
McIntosh, who returned home to the village of Gilgandra after studying fine arts, uses these kinds of discarded, found and second-hand objects to explore interactions between production, consumption and the environment.
Originally a landscape painter, McIntosh changed mediums when she watched the 2019 drought brutalise the countryside.
"It just got to the point where there was no vegetation, everything was dead and the colour of the landscape had disappeared," McIntosh recalled.
"I remember looking down at my watercolour palette with all these bright colours and not knowing how (they) were made or how their production possibly had a negative impact on the environment that I love and care for.
"It pushed me to, instead of making art about a place, start making art with a place."
Her practice involves collaborations with the elements by covering the materials in dirt, leaving them in the wind or submerging them in water.
McIntosh also uses food waste and organic material to create natural dyes.
"It's a direct example of the environment having the last say - it's influencing everything all the time.
"Art is not immune to climate change and it will erode as well if we don't look after the environment."
Sowing and Sewing also examines traditional gender roles in rural Australia, using a mixture of domestic materials like fabrics and thread and agricultural items like wire and tarps.
One of the works features bullet holes, which McIntosh has mended with delicate thread.
"I'm superimposing the male-oriented, imposing impact on the landscape with softer female-oriented notions of care and mending," she said.
"But I'm careful not to be too critical of the male-oriented impacts because there needs to be a balance.
"It's about trying to figure out that balance."
The exhibition is part of the HomeGround program, which supports emerging regional artists to expand their skills and work with staff in an established gallery.