Danny May takes a fragment of a quote by Aristotle as the title of his exhibition Obscene Beasts And Corpses and cites Hieronymus Bosch as one of its primary influences. The work on display, which was exhibited earlier this year at the MOMA, in his home town of Machynlleth and transfers to Aberystwyth this month, doesn’t telegraph its taste for the grotesque quite as clearly as that might suggest, but in presenting both two – and three-dimensional pieces utilises both forms rather neatly.
Danny May’s sculptures are carved from oak using a lathe, with the intention that they depreciate over time: appendages jut out bulbously, elegant but also a little obscene. (A ‘progressive’ city council might deploy one as a Christmas tree, a la Paul McCarthy.) Paintings, meanwhile, evoke these cartoonish curves, colourful in an autumnal way, with what May says are references to the story of the Garden Of Eden. There are indeed treelike and snakeish figures in there, though much is left open to interpretation in Obscene Beasts And Corpses.
Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Thurs 25 Nov-Fri 28 Jan. Admission: free. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER
