Trace at Manchester Contemporary

The Trace Box Set that contains Prints from some of my graduated Print Students, Staff of MMU (including me) and invited artists (Andrew Bracey, Alison Erika Forde & Laurence Lane) will be on display in the Print room of the Manchester Contemporary over the weekend of 27th-30th October 2011. More details can be found at themanchestercontemporary.com

Chelsea to West Ham

Below is a new Print titled ‘River Thames (Chelsea to West Ham)’. It is an archival digital inkjet print with Silkscreen printed elements. The image has been drawn within the computer – from a short length of rope that was found whilst ‘mud-larking’ on the shore of the River Thames in Wapping.

 

 

 

 

 

This print can be bought from ‘Oran O’Reilly Prints’

Out in the Cold

This is an image of a work (bottom image) I will be showing at the Mall Galleries in the ‘Bite’ exhibition. It is a combination of Digital inkjet drawing and Silkscreen. The photo was taken in my studio.

Bite at the Mall Galleries

I will be exhibiting work in the exhibition ‘Bite’ at the Mall Galleries from the 24th August.

‘BITE is a new contemporary printmaking show, showcasing the most exciting prints by artists working in a range of different printmaking methods.’

Talking Prints at ArtLab

I will be talking about my work at ArtLab, Preston as part of the Talking Prints programme. The talk is on 16th February 2011.

Click on the link to Art Lab

New website

I have created a new website that has previous works and publications.

New print sale site

My Print Sales site (click here)

Online Catalogue – Vienna

Click to have a look at the online catalogue for the Multiple Matters Exhibition at Künstlerhaus, Vienna. My work is page 134. The exhibition runs until 13th June 2010.

Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria

I will be showing some digital drawings at Kunstlerhaus, Vienna in May 2010. These are from the same series that are currently on show in Vienna.

In Mythologies, Roland Barthes states that ‘toys are chemical in substance and colour, their very material introduces one to a coenaesthesia of use, not pleasure. These toys die in fact very quickly, and once dead, they have no posthumous life for the child.’ The proliferation of plastic toys must, by now, have lead to a mass grave of discarded and lifeless objects that once held the gaze, attention and affection of recent generations. The high molecular mass of plastic means that many modern toys will ‘outlive’ their childhood owners whether shelved and forgotten or buried at the bottom of the garden awaiting archaeologists of the future.

Barthes, like Baudrillard explores the idea that our reality is a social construct – defined and visualised through signs and symbols. The work ‘Revelation’ is part of a series that explores our relationships to objects and the questions that these can raise when displaced and set in new combinations. Common household objects, souvenirs, human remains, and deceased insects are imagined into the form of a ‘hand-made’ set of Rosary beads. At its edge we have the recumbent figure of a plastic Homer Simpson, the hapless father figure of the dysfunctional family outfit within the cartoon series ‘The Simpsons’.  The character of Homer has been much used and copied throughout his relatively short history, vying for Google stats with the image of Jesus that he here replaces. The image of Homer has become a symbol of Western societies foibles and shortcomings, exaggerated through a lack of detail cast ineptitude.

As the world is unravelled by science, and people replace their weekly Sunday visit to church with a visit to Ikea, the dominance of Religion does battle with consumerism and people look for something else to believe in. Rosary beads recently enjoyed a short period as a style accessory – where there original use and meaning was completely eradicated – creating a subversion of this iconic form.

In Japan, the world of Manga has infiltrated peoples daily lives, fashions and social identities, with the hyper real characters acting as icons and helping to blur the space between reality and imagination. Homers character differs to this, his cartoon form harking back to early exploits from Disney. His difference to Manga characters is a large part of his success, where Manga seems to mimic, Homer seems to be equally reminiscent of us and at the same time as far removed as Mickey Mouse… an alien of sorts with universally recognisable human/animal characteristics uniquely caricatured, creating a reverence through both sympathy or empathy. In ‘Revelation’, Homer is exploited for all his associations, helping the viewer relate to wider social issues and rightly or wrongly taking his place on the wooden cross.

 

 

 

All Back to Mine

click to link to Tintype (formerly Wall) – My work was exhibited in the exhibition ‘All Back to mine‘ in July, curated by Joby Williamson.