2014 Catalogue Archive

Ruairiadh O’Connell’s work investigates the psychological functions of design, often looking at abstract patterns, domestic interiors, and landscape architecture. In Circus Circus, a work from O’Connell’s ‘wax paintings,’ he silkscreens on industrial wax which has been infused with oil pigment and poured into a steel frame. The design is appropriated from casino carpets, which fascinate O’Connell in that they comfort visitors by functioning as a kind of anesthetic that distracts them from their failures and dismay. This luscious and psychological work disrupts, and embraces, the emotional and conceptual functions of its source. O’Connell lives and works in Frankfurt. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Project Native Informant for MiArt, Milan; Pro Numb, London; Project Native Informant, London; Landings, Oslo; Halle Fur Kunst, Luneburg; and International Project Space, Birmingham.