This monumental display of ready-meal packaging, draws attention to our disposable consumer culture and manufactured ideas of freshness and naturalness. The garnish leaf pictured on each meal is cut from its box and folded to stand up in the centre of individual plant pots. These pots are then arranged according to garnish species and lit from above like a hothouse.

McCarthy’s works often deal with the concept of lifestyle and how it is used as a language to express identity. Crisps, toilet paper, plastic bags, rubbish and furniture are some of the everyday materials she has used to explore the nature of representation, consumerism and ideas of value and taste. Made in 2003, Promise has a powerful resonance years later as we comprehend the devastating environmental impacts of human consumption and the shift in our understanding of ourselves from consumers in the world to consumers of the world.