My work is characterised by its use of appropriated imagery and text. Sampling from pop-culture and using this to understand modern life.
I photograph, copy, scan and manipulate found images, slogans and song lyrics. Then re-position them in often playful and irreverent ways to create a new meaning or set of meanings. Poking at them to see what may be revealed.
As well as being influenced by 'appropriation artists' such as Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince and Hans-Peter Feldmann, I take much of my inspiration from musicians who rely heavily on sampled (pirated) sources. The band Negativland and many works from the early rave scene are particular reference points for me.
Much of my work utilises collage, but rather than the traditional approach of combining elements from disparate sources to create a totally new image, I purposefully preserve the content and contexts of the chosen images and intervene with them to subtly disrupt their narrative. Appropriating what’s already real about an existing image and attempting to reveal something more real.
I grew up in the UK, spent time in Berlin and now live and work in Athens, Greece.
Irish, born 1971.
