BYRD

26 August - 01 October 2016 @ CCAS: Gorman Arts Centre

I am interested in space and place; in the ideals of mend and make do; in what can be done with that which surrounds us, words, pictures, ideas, material resources and so on. These paintings and the floor piece are made from reclaimed materials, and have grown out of my mural practice.

Wall works are captured moments of my performed wall productions. Small elements of interesting effect/affect. They extend an ongoing mode of image production, a kind of journal, becoming more codified and less illustrative year by year. These often start during mural production on portable grounds, then retreat to the studio for reflection, refinement and resolution.
Floor pieces, such as street studio (2016), are bits of the world remade for the gallery. They become places upon which to perform paintings. Places because they bring context with them. They come already storied and yet remain available to new narratives. The street studio –my car- acts as a self-portrait that describes the connection between my mural productions; the counterpart wall-works; and my sculptural practice.

Words are like any other resource, commonly available but not strictly fixed. Words gather towards meaning, but the outcome can be shifted with context. #tagging is a kind of digital breadcrumb trail, but fidelity to spelling can be just as obscuring. Misappropriated words point two ways; at their source and towards new meanings.

Artist statement and image courtesy of the artist.