Caroline McCarthy is an Irish artist who has used a lot of materials that wouldn’t normally be thought of as art materials. Her work incorporates serious messages about the environment and history but also always has a touch of humour. For example, her artwork Promise uses things we will all be familiar with: plastic flowerpots and ready meal packaging. Here we see the artist using things we would normally throw away. The pictures of the garnish on the ready meal boxes are cut out and made to stand up as if they are real plants growing out of the pots. This artwork lets us think about what we eat, how it is sold to us, and what happens to all the packaging when we are done eating.

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