Tricks of the Trade explored spaces of construction through sculptural installation. The works in the series referenced elements found in spaces such as workshops, garages, factory floors and sheds – that I encountered and photographed over the last decade. I was drawn to industrial places where others construct, assemble and make things, and the rituals and rhythms of the processes that define the work that happens in them. The sculptures in Tricks of the Trade were made of everyday building materials and wood and metal offcuts - painted in the colour palettes found on the machinery, dust covers, walls and floors of the spaces in my photographs. The sculptural works included in the exhibition varied in scale and arrangement, and invited the viewer to physically navigate them to understand and experience them. At the centre of Tricks of the Trade was a large-scale site-specific installation that featured a playful, nest-like space and fragments of functional industrial workspaces such as worktables and scaffolding, structures disassociated from their original contexts to evoke new narratives. Tricks of the Trade was accompanied by a booklet with a text called Instructions for Assembly of Workspace by Northern Irish writer Wendy Erskine. Developed through a collaboration and exchanges between the artist and writer, Wendy Erskine’s text provided a unique response to the themes of the artist’s work and the exhibition.

Related Reading:

Essay by writer Eugenie Shinkle commissioned by Light Work, New York (2021)

Interview with curator Sarah Allen commissioned by IMMA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021)