David Raymond Conroy presents a series of works that investigate the idea of fidelity in everyday experience; the truth or accuracy of a copy, a reproduction or a representation.<\/p>\n
The title of the exhibition, PPE or It is Spring and I am Blind<\/em>, refers to the renowned University of Oxford course in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE). Conroy employs these subjects as a lens to explore how he makes artistic judgments, attaches value to the materials he chances upon, and incorporates these materials into his work.<\/p>\n A series of three-dimensional works Documentary Sculptures <\/em>are made from loose assemblages of furniture which replicate \u2018readymade\u2019 flea market displays. The works incorporate image slideshows compiled from eBay auctions, including images of mirrors in which people have tried (and failed) to avoid being captured by the camera lens.<\/p>\n Conroy describes his interest in exploring the contradictory ideas of the authenticity and artifice in the everyday: \u201cThere is a moment that can happen through the process of representation where something will seem authentic, we will read something and it will feel honest or we will see something and it will strike us as true. But the joy of something feeling real doesn’t come from it being reality. Perhaps that is the heart of it, that there seems to be a gap between feeling and being; that in order to make something feel authentic the only way is to create something artificial.\u201d<\/p>\n