Danny Treacy: Them
Exhibition Dates: 18 July – 14 September 2008
Location: 5 Great Newport Street
Them is an ongoing project by the British photographer Danny Treacy. Begun in 2002, the project includes items of clothing that are gathered, then dismantled and reassembled by Treacy. These are then turned into constructed suits – entitled Them – which he wears and captures in life-size self-portraits.
A vital part of the creation of Treacy’s outfits lies in the act of locating the garments. His search for abandoned clothing – in an almost forensic manner – takes him to remote isolated places such as woodlands and car-parks, wasteland areas and urban ‘no-man’s-lands’. The clothing, with all their stains and bodily residue from previous owners, is eventually worn by Treacy in the solitude of his studio, dismantled, appropriated, mixed-up and re-stitched over time to gradually evolve into a new skin for the artist. These various processes culminate in the act of the self-portrait.
Presented as life-size prints, Treacy’s figures emerge lonely from a black void, their faces always obscured and masked. Although they directly confront the viewer, we are left guessing at their facial expressions or emotions. His mummified bodies often appear genderless, which results in the creation of almost archetypal, timeless figures – the medieval warrior, the industrial zombie, the mythical beast. Treacy is not interested in the origins or personal history of the individual items of clothing, but by briefly inhabiting other people’s possessions he experiences a certain level of intimacy, eroticism and desire.
The effect of the photographs is both haunting and uncertain, imbued with the duality of seduction and repulsion that also drives Treacy’s initial hunt for his outfits. Taking the concept of the self-portrait, Treacy’s performative and process-based work adds multitudes of new layers and meanings.
Danny Treacy (b.1975) was born in Manchester and graduated in 2002 with an MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London and was awarded The Photographers’ Gallery Graduate Award the same year. In 2003 he received the inaugural Jerwood / Portfolio Photography Award. Other ongoing series by Treacy are Grey Area (begun in 2002) that consist of colour photographs of spaces painted grey and Fertile Ground (started in 2004) featuring colour photograms of obelisk-like structures and are made outdoors and at night. His work has featured in many international publications including Camera Austria, Blueprint, Portfolio and Photoworks and has been shown in Europe and the United States. Treacy is currently artist in residence at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin (www.modernart.ie).
Reader feedback:
Discuss this story:
