David Raymond Conroy
30 Jul - 08 Sep 2013
DAVID RAYMOND CONROY
PPE, or It is Spring and I am Blind
30 July - 8 September 2013
This month at Modern Art Oxford, 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.
The title of the exhibition, PPE or It is Spring and I am Blind, 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.
“There 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.”
The phrase It is Spring and I am Blind is taken from an anecdote often attributed to advertising guru David Ogilvy. Pointing to the power of a romantic narrative Ogilvy used the example of an advertising executive who, on his way to work one morning, stops to alter a beggar's sign from ‘I am blind, please help’ to ‘It is spring and I am blind’. On returning that evening the executive is delighted to see the beggar's cap overflowing with donations.
PPE, or It is Spring and I am Blind
30 July - 8 September 2013
This month at Modern Art Oxford, 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.
The title of the exhibition, PPE or It is Spring and I am Blind, 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.
“There 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.”
The phrase It is Spring and I am Blind is taken from an anecdote often attributed to advertising guru David Ogilvy. Pointing to the power of a romantic narrative Ogilvy used the example of an advertising executive who, on his way to work one morning, stops to alter a beggar's sign from ‘I am blind, please help’ to ‘It is spring and I am blind’. On returning that evening the executive is delighted to see the beggar's cap overflowing with donations.