In The Wound & The Ghost, Michael MacGarry considers how violence, inequality and unresolved histories continue to shape the present long after the events themselves have faded from public conversation.
The exhibition takes its title from two intertwined ideas. The wound speaks to historical harm, while the ghost represents the traces that remain. Rather than treating history as something settled, MacGarry suggests that its consequences continue to circulate through contemporary life, influencing social and economic structures in ways that often go unnoticed.
A key point of departure is the historical tontine, a financial system in which surviving participants benefited as others died. MacGarry uses this model as a lens through which to consider systems of accumulation and exclusion, drawing parallels with the unequal distribution of power and wealth that persists today.
Skeletons recur throughout the exhibition, but they function as more than memento mori. Based on the artist’s own proportions, they introduce a personal register to the work, grounding broader historical questions in the scale of an individual body. Alongside these darker themes, MacGarry employs wit and dry humour, using satire to open space for reflection rather than certainty.
Rather than offering resolutions, The Wound & The Ghost invites viewers to consider how inherited histories continue to shape the present, and what it means to live alongside their enduring echoes.
