another year in LA

"BREATHING, FAILING, FALLING"

Conceptual work by Richard Haley


Artist Statement

Gallery Director Statement

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              

RICHARD HALEY - ARTIST STATEMENT

 

Over the past few years I have been conducting research into the nature of “being”.

 
I exploit various artistic practices such as video, photography, lies, simulations, and performance to search for the body’s past, present, and future definitions. I reduce the scope of my inquiry to what I consider our most primary experiences: the understanding of our corporeal and somatic existence and how location defines oneself.
 
The primary research method I have used has been futility: applying futility to notions of embodiment, weight and mass of the body, public speech, and historical locations. Using this knowledge gained through this research, I have created an alternative mapping of the body, in hope that this new cartography can add to the understanding to the nature of being and its relationship to the human body as a social entity.

Return to Top

Return to ANOTHER YEAR IN LA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CATHY STONE - GALLERY DIRECTOR STATEMENT

Richard Haley prompts investigation in essential terms exploring states of being; BREATHING, FAILING, FALLING which reference physical circumstance, psychological investigation and recognition of opportunity in the presentation of conceptually embodied works.  In creating visual dialogue, or in homage to or at least giving a formal nod to Bruce Nauman, Mr. Haley makes work referencing specificity in the observation of human condition, his artistic manifestation of those observations and the documentation thereof.

 In the inclusion of layering of images in the video works (single images shot and videotaped), chance and timing create the opportunity for the exploration of various concepts, one being the state of indecision ("100 Attempts To Sit Almost Like Eldridge Cleaver")  in the repetition of a single activity.  Haley creates multiple investigations of focused circumstance by limiting the observation to a single act, repeated. The work reflects tension and play simultaneously.  It is this dualistic attitude that creates both question and investigation/observation in Haley's work.

 The inclusion of sculpture, site-specific photo documentation, and video create a window into Mr. Haley's conceptual oeuvre. The "evidence" of this formal investigation is often substantiated by multiple sculptural adaptations including molds, which are made as the result of a physical comment, specific action or activity at the "site".  The removal of the viewer from the site creates both emotional and physical distance in the work resulting in the necessity to imagine the action having taken place somewhere else.  Both photos and sculptures provide documentation of the act and create works that exist as relics.

In the animated CD, "Blood Ramp" again referencing the process of Eadweard Muybridge, coupled with the synthesis of Mr. Haley's intentionally sophomoric sculptural devices that beg the question of necessity focusing on device, again create a humorous explanation of a painful, wincing activity repeatedly cutting one's own finger with an x-acto knife. Ouch!

 Mr. Haley's performance based works, quirky documentation, ethereal but clumsy sculptures probe artistic aesthetics intentionally drawing attention to their own self-consciousness and divisiveness in their materiality and presentation.

Return to Top

Return to ANOTHER YEAR IN LA


another year in LA is located at 2121 N. San Fernando Road, #13, Los Angeles, CA 90065

Gallery phone:  323-223-4000