Static (pink). 2004-2009
Silicone, stainless steel. 271 x 164 x 324 cm
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy Fondazione Nicola Trussardi

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Static (pink). 2004-2009
Silicone, stainless steel. 271 x 164 x 324 cm
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy Fondazione Nicola Trussardi

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Pirate Party. 2005. 4 channels video installation, 92’00”
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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Paula Jones. 2010. 170 x 122 x 244 cm
Silicone, aluminum, wood, latex, polyurethane
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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Paula Jones. 2010. 170 x 122 x 244 cm
Silicone, aluminum, wood, latex, polyurethane
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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Ketchup Sandwich. 1970
Glass, ketchup, Heinz ketchup bottles. 76 x 76 x 76 cm
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy Moderna Museet, Stockholm

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Pig Island. 2003-2010
Mixed media. 11 x 10 x 6 m
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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Pig Island. 2003-2010
Mixed media. 11 x 10 x 6 m
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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Pig Island. 2003-2010
Mixed media. 11 x 10 x 6 m
Installation view, Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Courtesy the artist, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Hauser & Wirth

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From May 20 to July 4, 2010, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi presented Pig Island, the first major solo show by American artist PAUL MCCARTHY.

Pig Island installation was a world premiere and has been mounted in the basement of the Palazzo Citterio in Milan. This building had remained closed for 30 years and was reopened for the exhibition.

Combining minimalism and performance, video and sculpture, MCCARTHY‘s work transports visitors to a universe that combines Hollywood glamour with the dark side of the American dream; an extraordinary distortion and mutation of the familiar into something disturbing and carnivalesque. He became known in the 1970s for his visceral performances and film works but during the 1990s extended his practice into stand alone sculptural figures, installations and also a series of large inflatable sculptures.

For this exhibition he presented one of his most complex and ambitious works, Pig Island (the 2 last pictures), a giant sculpture that grew in the artist’s studio to fill over 100 square meters with a surreal anthology of the themes that have cropped up throughout his career. This piece is a work-in-progress that PAUL MCCARTHY has been developing for over seven years. He literally displays his studio, his workshop where he produces dreams, nightmares and fantasies. As we writes, “Pig Island is a baby factory: it makes sculpture, the sculpture goes off and than comes back. Producing sculpture as an industrial process.”

PAUL MCCARTHY was born in Salt Lake City in 1945 and now lives in Los Angeles.