Bumpflakes is a major new exhibition by Nuisancebears, aka Sligo-born sculptor Nick Devaney. The work of Nuisancebears occupies a cultural geography inhabited by the likes of Jimmy Durham and Gabriel Orozco, a land where familiar, everyday objects and cultural references conspire to create glimpses of alternative possibilities that are both engaging and provocative. Concrete kerbing combines with the likes of cocktail umbrellas, cornflakes consort with speed bumps, an ice fishing hut provides a life-size studio-laboratory for the implied-but-absent ‘scientist/artist’ author of these works. The world of Nuisancebears is one that merges art and reality, blurring boundaries and posing questions. There is playfulness in the compositions, a joy of the absurd arising from the juxtapositions and associations. But this work is more than a series of clever ‘one-liners’ made solid: not only does it express a confident and impressive formal aesthetic that delivers eloquent works of art in their own right, it also invites us to consider how we make sense of the world around us.
