Archives have an index and usually collections have an inventory. These unambiguous taxonomical devices are grounded in the idea that what they present is fact. Just as the dictionary and encyclopedia are structures to which we refer in order to be informed, so are the index and the archive.

This a key work representing an ongoing enquiry into the politics and economics of commodified labour in a global economy. 20 Euros per kilo (2011) was commissioned by Static Gallery Liverpool, and Peter Gorschlüter, Deputy Director Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, for the exhibition and conference 'Terminal Convention'. Shaw develops a critically engaged enquiry into the language of sculpture, narrative and exhibition that chronicles the life of an object and its concealed modes of production.

This research recovers and re-historicises the suffragette as a militant artist in order to infuse and sharpen contemporary interest in the relation between art and politics through the inspiration of suffragette tactics and rigour.

This research attempts to find a generative role for live art documentation, using it to extend the meaning of the original performed action

In the work, ultramarine blue (an artificial lapis lazuli once made in Backbarrow and still made in Hull) was ‘recreated’ through a cyclical process using ‘leisure activity’ instead of hard labour.

This research engaged with the potential for meaning to be generated and subverted through relationship to context. The development of the work deliberately sought to challenge the perceived ability for artwork to embody pre-defined meaning, whether in relation to site or the wider artist's project.

Penelope/Odyssey is a new series of twenty-four drawings comprising a visual analysis of Homer’s Odyssey. McCarthy researched variant versions, textual, spoken and pictorial to challenge assumptions about how a text may be ‘known’ and presented. The research juxtaposes different versions of Homer’s work in a single collection that reanimates the narrative.

Series of minimalist pop monoliths fabricated in PU elastomer and installed permanently in the tidal Waterworks River through the central section of Stratford's Olympic park

This curatorial research and exhibition was commissioned by The Royal Academy. It was an extended critical reflection on what became an export franchise through the last century. By posing questions such as ‘what is British?’ and ‘what is Sculpture?’ it told a story that explored what each of those terms brings to the other.

The View From My Window Tells Me I'm Home is an observation, investigation and social record of the lives and thoughts of ten current residents of the Golden Lane Estate, London.