BOX OF TRICKS

Paul Hay

Friday 27th May 2011 - Saturday 2nd July 2011

CCAS Gorman Mainspace

Just like Frankenstein’s monster, Paul Hay’s sculptures form an animated body of work. Found objects and everyday materials organically meld until you can’t tell what has been found and what has been made. There is a wheelbarrow and a grand piano, tactile wood, bright red paint and smooth metal. Despite disparate elements, Hay’s sculptures make up a seamless body of work, each component simultaneously operating as part of the whole and competing for the viewer’s undivided attention.

In Hay’s impressive box of tricks is the rare ability to breathe life into familiar, inanimate objects. Their function surgically removed, these objects are free to be themselves and to take on new forms and human-like characteristics. Hay’s sculptures are mischievous together in the studio or gallery space - it isn’t hard to imagine them moving while your back is turned. And each sculpture has its own intriguing story to tell. You can’t help but feel for them.

Image: Paul Hay, Unprepared, 2009, mixed media