Born to Kill | Pat McCarthy

Pigeons & Flowers Quilt, 2023, Laser photocopy on paper, dental floss, oak frame 44” h x 40”w x 2”d, Pat McCarthy, Image by Inna Svatsky

Written by Jania Marissa

Recently at the Brooklyn Art Museum, hundreds of artists showcased their art in the medium of zines. Zine’s are not traditionally placed in museums, but recent exposure to the scene has allowed spotlights on several Zine Artists, one of which being Pat McCarthy, who works with the medium as an essential part of his artistic practice and production. McCarthy has been working with zines since his high school years; starting with his involvement in the punk scene, zines were used heavily within the music world. The birth of his ongoing series “Born to Kill” was in the year 2009. Traveling is what truly inspired the lens of these zines, the idea being a documentation of moments that can fit in a backpack. McCarthy’s experiences are captured in a visual and accessible way for all to see.

The subject of the zines began to heavily focus on farming and specifically flying pigeons, which McCarthy has been doing for over 15 years in his Brooklyn Flat. Pigeons are a subject in several of McCarthy’s recent “Born to Kill” Zines, which are currently displayed in exhibitions not limited to the United States. What is unique about McCarthy’s display of zines is their duality and metamorphosis of form they adapt into. They are not just banned books of text and photographs but transformed into whatever you want them to be.

My roof in Bushwick Brooklyn, Scan of centerfold to the zine: Born to Kill #96 - Pigeon Plumage 1, 2019. Pat McCarthy

Take Issue 104 for example, titled “ Pigeons and Flowers”, in which the zine has a black and white background with images of flowers and pigeons in vivid colors such as pinks, browns, blues, and reds. The eye is drawn to the flowers and pigeons which pop off of the darker-toned background. McCarthy intentionally wanted the birds and pigeons to pop, ensuring that he cut them out of the original zine with an Exacto knife, then copied the background of the zine in black and white and taped the colored bird and pigeons back into place. The pages were then sewn together to give a quilt display with a light wood frame around the quilt. This allows the viewer to digest the zine as if it were a painting, rather than a collection of pages connected by a spine. It is a collection of pages expanded outwardly, to be seen all at the same time as a comprehensive piece of work.

Pigeons & Flowers Quilt, 2023, Laser photocopy on paper, dental floss, oak frame 44” h x 40”w x 2”d, Pat McCarthy, Image by Stephen Faught

The composition of this piece is the brightly colored flower and pigeon being paired together in varying order in front of the black and white background. The duality of beauty and uniqueness is found in the common subject of flowers, but is now translated to the observation of pigeons. McCarthy says, “flowers are often an object of beauty, the variety of flowers are all beautiful and pigeons are also beautiful and unique like flowers”. The ability to see the two subjects in conversation with each other allows the viewer to transfer the aesthetic beauty of flowers onto the pigeons, despite pigeons being a familiar but uncommon subject of beauty. “Born to Kill” is a paradox, the name coming from the film Full Metal Jacket, inspired by the helmet that bears the same phrase. A sharp, bitey expression that morphs meaning depending on the subject matter, there is an irony that it holds in the context of pigeons.

The ability to include zines in spaces as an openly accessible medium allows art to exist beyond sterile photographs and lofty books, but rather a capturing and creation of experience in a universal expressive way. McCarthy’s method allows us viewers to see a new, nuanced take on subject matters we tend to ignore or not take time to notice because of the dismalness of the mundane. Within his ongoing series of “Born to Kill”, currently at 106 issues, McCarthy wants there to be documentation of his voyages, adventures, and travels. The world of zines is just beginning to gain broad recognition, and with.

Portrait at the opening of Copy Machine Manifestos, Image by Unnamed Photographer