Archive 2009-10
David Sherry
- Venue: Fine Art Lecture Theatre
- Start: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:00:00 BST
- End: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:00:00 BST
“I make drawings, videos and performances. Each of these disciplines react off each other. The drawings can be ideas for videos or performances. And likewise a moment in a performance or video can inspire a series of drawings. This is how my work becomes a process of events. Each work relates and takes a lead from the last.
In my work I develop rules and regulations for irrational procedures. Whether developing a situation where a purchase is refused ‘No Rolo’ or a waiter is paid for a meal that hasn’t been ordered ‘Great meals I’ve never had’. Many of my works are made from planned and altered social experiences and they observe our casual interactions from new perspectives.My work looks at how social norms are strictly observed in public. I look for situations where people falsify their mood through a series of ticks. If someone feels insecure in a street they may check their mobile phone, just to gain some confidence or balance.
My work looks at how we want to ‘fit in’ and at times feel at odds with the society we live in. Many of my works look at the feeling of falseness or what Jean Paul Sartre described as ‘Bad Faith’, role playing ones way through life. One work that looks at this is ‘Smoke break from self’. In this work I drop a cigarette onto the pavement and smoke it from a lying down position. In recent works I have been looking at the relationship between the performance artist and the viewer. I am interested in how performance art sits in relation to other art forms in a gallery or art space. In ‘Orange hair performance’ performed at Liste Art Fair 2009, I lie on the ground and have orange paint poured onto my hair. After two hours (in this position) I am cut away from the setting paint. In this work I wanted the viewer to be confronted by the performance..."