David Shrigley

I went to the David Shrigley exhibition at the Hayward Gallery today. As a whole I really enjoyed the exhibition. Some of the work was really witty and very dry humour… which I liked. But some of the pieces of work I just thought was a bit… meh. (best way to describe it) for example the stuffed dog holding the “I’m Dead” sign, it was displayed in a glass cabinet… but to be brutally honest, it looked a bit crap as the real thing. The photograph looked better than the real thing.

What annoyed me the most was that, I enjoyed the exhibition, but what I understood about David Shrigley was that he was very “anti-art.” His work almost takes the piss out of art, and his humour is very dry and sarcastic, but yet he has displayed his work in a white roomed exhibition space… therefore contradicting his “anti-art” approach. I could have got this completely wrong.

There were 3 pieces that I liked the most.

One was called “what decay looks like.”

You stand in front of the mirror, and you see a small decaying tooth infront of the mirror, and you assume ahh okay… yes tooth decay. But then after looking at that mirror for long enough, you realise that actually, not only is the mirror reflecting the decaying tooth, but also you the viewer. And this is what decay looks like…

Another piece I liked was simply a couple of words placed outside the window saying “Look At This.” I’m not sure why I liked it so much, but I think it was because it was so straight forward that it was quite funny. 

Finally my favourite was a short 1 minute animation called “new friends.” The whole time I was watching it, I was smiling because it was as though the animation was so crappy and simple, it was actually really good. These squares with a face, legs and feet are marching in procession. One square falls down a hole and ends up finding new friends with these circles. Then whilst celebrating their new friendship, the circles carry the square over to a massive chainsaw, and saw off his corners to make him into a circle… and that’s the end. As I was saying, I was smiling throughout the whole animation, and still smiling at the end, but more of a concerned and worried smile. You’re left a bit shocked at the end, and I was definitely still smiling, but thinking at the same time… why am I laughing/ still smiling at this… its horrific… but funny.

This reaction was the best part of the exhibition. It made me come up with an idea that I could do for my final piece. Why don’t I make an animation… using my own little characters, that go through all these different embarrassing situations, which would make my audience laugh, but maybe something happens at the end that makes them react completely differently.

I was thinking of the idea of embarrassing my audience in my final piece of work. Maybe its interactive? And when my audience interact with the work, I try to embarrass them and make them blush? And then hence the title… “Why are you Blushing?” it’ll make them think… actually why am I embarrassed? There’s no need to be embarrassed.

Ways I could embarrass them, I was thinking my animation characters at the end of the video could tell the viewer to press this button… and then suddenly a REALLY LOUD NOISE appears. Could be an embarrassing noise like a fart, or just something really loud. Anything that will make other people in the room turn around and look at this particular viewer. They will attract unwanted attention, and blush…