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#Duke Riley
#plastic
#scrimshaw
#sculpture
All photographs by Robert Bredvad, courtesy of Reward Shadows Artwork Gallery, shared with permission
Essentially the most well-known goat within the historical past of Boston was named Skellig Mör. Through the early 1900s, Skellig Mör’s title plastered headlines as an arduous authorized battle for his custody ensued. The famed goat was born in Killorglin, a city in County Kerry, Eire. Previous to being purchased by People and brought abroad to Boston, Skellig Mör was dubbed king within the annual Puck Honest, certainly one of Eire’s oldest traditions through which a gaggle of people trek up a mountain vary, catch one of many horned mammals, and crown the chosen one ‘King Puck.’ A king and symbolic entity, Skellig Mör’s absence triggered tensions to rise, taking issues of possession to the courts.
Ultimately, ruling determined that Skellig Mör would keep in U.S. custody, and he lived the remainder of his days aboard a battleship referred to as the USS Vermont. The goat’s unlucky dying got here the identical 12 months he was given to the American crusing crew, sparking information protection as soon as extra that exposed the goat’s physique was finally stuffed and displayed in a Boston museum. In Duke Riley’s latest solo exhibition titled The Repatriation of King Skellig Mör, the artist explores this curious relationship between animals and nature, institutional energy, and possession.
Cultivating his ongoing fascination with historical past and folklore coupled with cultural affect and environmental destruction, Riley creates visible layers to inform a re-imagined story. Following swimsuit along with his earlier work, the artist repurposes bottles and containers from mundane family merchandise. By portray and carving into these supplies, Riley fully transforms home provides into seemingly archival relics bearing the undertones of each historic and up to date narratives.
The Repatriation of King Skellig Mör options not solely Riley’s lauded scrimshaw iterations and monumental mosaics pieced collectively from vibrant items of plastic trash, but additionally introduces new materials ventures. The artist’s “ruby glass” sculptures evoke the early 1900s, when the fabric was broadly offered at vacationer stops within the type of souvenirs and keepsakes. Exhibition textual content states that Riley “makes use of nostalgia for this materials to attach the dots” between societal and wartime moments in American historical past.
Go to the present at Reward Shadows Artwork Gallery by June 30, and discover extra work on Riley’s Instagram and web site.
#Duke Riley
#plastic
#scrimshaw
#sculpture
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