MATTHEW O'REILLY
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Procession of the Self (2022)
    • We In Me (2022)
    • Humbly Heroic (2022)
    • Piles of Barbarism (2022)
    • Navel Glazing (2021)
    • Unsettled Self (2020)
  • Artist Talks
  • Instagram
  • Press
  • About Me/Contact
  • Education

Piles of Barbarism (2022)
​at the Leighton Art Center

Project Proposal


​My intention for this body of work is to continue my interrogation of the self in order to perhaps stumble upon larger truths about us. Lately, I am particularly interested in the inner conflicts that contradict the self as a homogeneous thing that we express agency over. Rather, perhaps a person is best conceptualized as a collection of individual competing selves that want and need different things. I ask sculptural questions of figurative objects; how does the meaning change when one stacks, piles, places close, further away, makes big, and relationship to the small? I ask these sculptural questions to inspire thought about ‘how we relate to’, whether it be to ourselves, or each other.

Photo documentation by Chelsea Yang-Smith

Picture
Exhibition Statement by Leighton Art Center's Director Christina Culbertson
​

Piles of Barbarism continues Matthew O’Reilly’s longstanding interrogation of the self. In linguistics a barbarism is a nonstandard word, expression, or pronunciation that arises when two or more languages collide. In this case, something that initially appears as a mistake transforms through struggle and negotiation to break with tradition to generate new words, ideas, and ways of knowing. O’Reilly is also interested in the creative potential of inner conflict. Many of the sculptures in this exhibition pile ceramic heads upon heads to contradict the idea of “self” as a homogeneous and singular thing that we express agency over. Rather, O’Reilly wonders if a person is best conceptualized as a collection of competing selves that want and need different things.

The idea of the singular, autonomous self has roots in Western enlightenment thinking, but differs greatly from many cultural traditions that grapple with the question “who am I?” Throughout his work, O’Reilly explores facets of the human condition, including ideas of connectedness, wholeness, and identity. He writes “I am particularly concerned with subverting sculptural embodiments of masculinity. I employ the grotesque in my armoury of satire to rupture the boundaries of what we know. I do this by dissecting the body into distorted fragments that come back together to solicit curiosity and repulsion. I aim to make reflexive work that pushes, pulls, and complicates dialogues around identity.”

Working in ceramics and sculpture, O’Reilly ponders sculptural questions through figurative objects; how does the meaning change when one stacks, piles, places close, further away? What is our relationship to the miniature and the monumental? How do we relate to ourselves and how does this affect the way we relate to each other?
The works in Piles of Barbarism were created, beginning in September 2021, during Matthew’s current residency at Medalta in Medicine Hat’s Historic Clay District. This exhibition is organized by Leighton Art Centre with funding support from the Government of Canada, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and Calgary Arts Development.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
    • Procession of the Self (2022)
    • We In Me (2022)
    • Humbly Heroic (2022)
    • Piles of Barbarism (2022)
    • Navel Glazing (2021)
    • Unsettled Self (2020)
  • Artist Talks
  • Instagram
  • Press
  • About Me/Contact
  • Education