Kemp writes about PIGSY
Kemp: the art of PIGSY
Pigsy is an artist hailing from Dublin's inner city, in Ireland. He paints in an attempt to assuage the conflicts in his mind, with his canvas being the battleground and the media he uses the tools of resolution and understanding. His media include acrylics, spray paint, chalk and anything else that feels right in the moment. Most figures that he creates in his work are of himself and this self portraiture sets him up as both the protagonist on canvas but also the antagonist as the creator and puppet master of the piece.
Religion
Although claiming to be agnostic, there is a strong religious undercurrent to a lot of his work, with angels, crosses and crowns of thorns featuring in many of his pieces. This may be as a result of the strict Catholic schooling of his youth. ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
Free Style - freedom in self expression and storytelling
His technique normally involves a free flowing start to each piece as he sets the scene for the broader context of the work, followed by a slower, drawn out finish as he immerses himself into the painting and endeavours to elicit an answer to the conundrums that he faces and to dig himself out of the holes he creates for himself in his mind.
He deals with dichotomous matters as a general rule : loneliness and the need to be alone, fame and the need for privacy, straying from the norm and the need to fit in etc. ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ In his latest tranche of work, he explores the existence of extraordinary people, their psyche, the effect that they have on society at large and vice versa.
Exhibitions
He has held solo shows in the urban art gallery The KEMP Gallery and had a hugely successful self funded pop-up exhibition in Dublin along with plans to show in Berlin in 2022. Look out for the documentary "Pigsy'' directed by film maker Mike Andrews, which did the rounds of the film festivals in Britain and Ireland and was then screened in the prestigious Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin, Ireland.
By Kemp
Why are parts of the text blacked out? Redaction explained.
PIGSY is much more comfortable painting than speaking about his work and the inspiration behind it. His work is a stream of consciousness and he goes into dark places of his psyche in order to create his art. As a result, he struggles to return to those places and explain verbally what the piece is about. PIGSY along with his curator Steve Kemp came up with a solution to this whereby Kemp would interview PIGSY once about each body of work and write up his interpretations of each piece. This is an exhausting and disturbing process for the artist but one that is necessary and once completed it releases him from the burden of speaking of the work again. Kemp’s text then acts as a buffer for the artist as he finds it much easier to convey Kemp’s words even though it is describing his work.
Redaction and personal passages
The redaction idea came about after the pair argued over the content of the interpretations. Pigsy felt some passages were too personal and didn’t want to share them with the world whereas Kemp felt every word was necessary to allow the viewer into the piece. The compromise was to leave all text in but redact the parts Pigsy wasn’t at ease with. The reader can see the legible parts but also knows that there is a little more to the art that’s left unexplained.