Conor O’Grady – Green Carnations
Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co. Mayo
September 2015
Taking its title from the scandalous 1894 novel that was closely based on the relationship between Oscar Wilde and Bosie, O’Grady’s inaugural solo exhibition locates itself firmly in the contemporary experience of the homosexual male in Ireland. While the recent events such as the gay marriage referendum might suggest Irish culture has become more embracing of LGBT equality, O’Grady focuses on the marginalisation that is still felt by many homosexual men engaged in what they believe is still considered ‘illicit’ behaviour, and the homophobia (both latent and sometimes blatant) that suffuses their experience.
O’Grady interrogates this partially self-defined ‘demimonde’ by means of four interrelated elements. Taking centre stage is Standing in the Way of Control, a floor-based installation made from gold foil inserts from the Benson & Hedges cigarette packets that the artist discovered were a regular feature at gay meeting places. Folded into a regular triangular shape, the elements are arranged in a rigorously intricate pattern suggestive both of a Turkish carpet design and also, in its careful arrangement, of a votive mandala. Due to its ephemeral nature and location, the delicate pattern experiences ongoing change over the course of the exhibition through public intervention, both inadvertent and invited. With its arte povera associations, the valorisation of this humble, discarded material offers an immersive presence, its fragility and unappreciated potential a mirror of the people who initially left these throwaway traces.
The floor installation is flanked by two series of black-and-white photographic images. The first, Phoenix Park Palare (Polari), offers a series of three grainy, gritty images of a park bench taken over a six year period, documenting the changing tone of the graffiti. The 2008 image text “CLEAR GAYS OUT OF OUR PARK TAKE CAR NUMBERS FOR GARDA” has mutated by 2014 into “TAKE NOTE ON GARDA CCTV CAR NO TAKEN FOR PRESS SO BE AWARE”, suggesting a much more proactive stance of self-empowerment. The ‘palare’/‘polari’ referenced in the titles, a cant slang utilised as a coded language by certain social groups including the male gay community, might also be seen to operate in the second series of smaller photographs. Presented in documentary-suggestive black-and-white, these superficially innocuous images present a number of locations that suggest a common link – perhaps gay meet-up points or places where anti-gay violence has occurred – that remains obscure for those not ‘in the know’.
Many Young Men of Twenty (Tabhair dom do lámh), a large video element commanding the far end of the gallery, is suffused with a sense of tension and threat of violence. A static scene of a passageway known as a location for gay assignations and also the scene of homophobic assault, is presented with an atmospheric soundtrack that mixes heartbeat and footsteps. Continuing the documentary black-and-white palette, the image itself, a frozen single moment comprising a repeated single video still, is filled with tense anticipation, a backdrop to implicit drama both past and imminent.
The titles O’Grady has conferred on the works adds a commentary that is rich in reference, wry humour and irony. Standing in the Way of Control was songwriter Beth Ditto’s response to the US government's stance on same sex marriage during George W. Bush's presidency. There are recontextualised references in the smaller photographs such as the Biblical Downfall of the Righteous Man and Stripling in Loose Attire, and the Shakespearean Misery Acquaints a Man with Strange
Bedfellows, while Many Young Men of Twenty references John B Keane’s play about emigration, and Tabhair dom do lámh (translation ‘give me your hand’) inverts the traditional paean to an idealised Ireland. These subversive literary references serve to add a further level of engagement in a show that in its quiet eloquence is cogent, ambitious and confident.
Ian Wieczorek 2015
(Ian Wieczorek is a visual artist and curator)
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