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DAVID FERRY: THE INVADER’S GUIDE TO THE BRITISH ISLES
02/11/2016 @ 10:00 am - 20/11/2016 @ 5:00 pm
Lying on the coffee table are picture books that tell us all we need to know about Britain: its history and geography combined. This printed matter supplies the artist David Ferry with both his subject and his raw material. Guides of the nation’s heritage imagine an innocent landscape where the manners and attitudes of the genteel middle classes of England prevail. Into these Ferry has inserted cut out images from neighbouring picture books that demonstrate the practices of the active hobbyist. Woollen garments adorn figures from British history; tropical fish swim through the great halls of stately mansions; rock climbers ascend national monuments; and confectioners bake their own public art works. The consequence of these additions is humorous undermining of an accepted narrative.
Providing a survey of David Ferry’s continued visual exploration of guides to British Heritage, this exhibition features work from series that span twenty-five years. The picture books, found in charity shops, are first subjected to simple cut and paste tampering; this is then refined through printmaking processes both traditional and digital. Resultant artist books and prints demonstrate a consistency of address that pokes fun at the polite and confident assertions of the conservative viewpoint.
David Ferry RE, is Emeritus Professor of Printmaking at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, RE, and printmaking consultant for the Sidney Nolan Trust in the UK. He has exhibited extensively in the UK and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions in Berlin, China, London, New York, Poznan and Seoul. His work can be found in public and corporate collections including Museum of Modern Art, New York; Ashmolean, Oxford; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and The Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He is also included in many international university collections, and the libraries of Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, Edinburgh, and the British Library London. David Ferry is a Pollock/Krasner Grantee from New York.
David Ferry is represented by Booklyn, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
Stephen Clarke, August 2016
NB: The Post Office Gallery is open 10am to 5pm daily during the Archibald Prize 2016 ( until Sun 27 Nov 2016).
