Hung Out to Dry
work by John Roy
Empty solo cups, liquor store shopping bags, and cigarette butts - familiar debris that marks the inevitable end of the party. The sun comes up, illuminates empty vessels, shines into eyes not ready to welcome the start of another day, forgetting when and how the last one stopped.
John Roy’s work examines the allure of the party, the toll of relentlessly pursuing the good times, and the aftermath.
Taking the common and ephemeral elements of the party and recasting them as permanent, elevated artifacts - Roy creates objects that reflect back to us misspent nights and days, the marks of time that are scratched into us by our own habits and vices.
The towel forms, bear marks of bottle caps, shiny surfaces of gold that seem pliant but are stiff, locked forever in a position they have been subjected to by an offhand gesture. A portrait seeks to reveal its subject while trapping it in time, the towels imply infinite flexibility and change that we only later understand is an illusion. How much we can really change, reshape ourselves or adapt against the forces that have shaped us is uncertain. The draw of the party, the potion or the pill is to be rapidly transformed, capable of seizing the hypothetical possibilities of the night that could bring us far away from the full light of day when we see ourselves too clearly.
Opening Reception: Friday, May 6th 6pm- 8:30pm
Solo Cup Stack
2015
Acrylic on cast polyurethane
10" x 4.5" x 4.5"