John O’Hare – The Trouble With Monuments
6th – 20th November
AirSpace Gallery Window
As part of Dialogue Box 2009
In my practice I appropriate and manipulate familiar objects in order to challenge processes of recognition and interpretation. My work examines the public reception of the artist’s work and its problematic impact upon the determination of the artistic vision. Whilst artistic style and content can be borrowed or appropriated there is still a faith held in the importance of the artist’s work and of their ability to transcend the everyday or have something valuable to impart. The appearance of my work is based on arbitrary decisions with the aim that they will receive their credence and consequence by the viewer, resulting in me playing with the aspirations to meet fleeting judgements of taste that also determine engagement.
The Trouble with Monuments is a play on the classical figure and its display (something often reprised with shop window displays of mannequins); an obese torso complete with ambiguous stains becomes a monument to the larger, fuller figure, yet one that is also characterised by its interpretation as a messy glutton. The desire to impart some truth about the contemporary human body through a figurative work conflicts with being unable to resist forcing an interpretation on something that might be better served by saying nothing. This conflict continues with the materials used to render the plinths and what they support; both the plinths and references to classical style accentuate the metaphor of the plinth and display techniques as things that focus attention, bringing about a dialogue, and with it expectations.
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