Open Frequency 2007: Ayling and Conroy selected by Sally Lai

Open Frequency 2007: Ayling and Conroy selected by Sally Lai Ayling and Conroy, Curio Island (version 2), 2007. 190 x 140 x 140 cm. Wood, plastic balls, paint, fake plants

Sally Lai profiles the work of Ayling and Conroy


Bruce Ayling and Hannah Conroy have worked collaboratively as artists and curators over the last few years under the name of Ayling and Conroy. Their practice has grown out of an interest in the context in which artwork is created and received, and the audience's participation with the work, where ever it exists - both at the point of experiencing the work in the gallery or in its wider dissemination through discussion, documentation and other types of media. From 2005 until this year they ran the My House Gallery/Projects programme which focused on creating temporary locations for artists to exhibit, perform and develop work.

'Drawing on a diverse range of visual styles, from sci-fi to Hokusai era woodblock prints to Old Masters, their work is playful and humorous, frequently taking existing and often forgotten works and presenting them in new ways, allowing for re-interpretation. Their recent piece, 'Fight for Sore Eyes', presented as part of Sideshow - Nottingham's independent accompaniment to the British Art Show 6 (2006) - was a quirky, over the top environment of all things plastic. Peering through the bird-watching hut in the front room of a terrace in suburban Nottingham, instead of a view of a natural landscape complete with the subtleties of nature - birds tweeting quietly in the distance - we found an onslaught of kitsch water features, mechanical plastic flying birds, forgotten artworks, bad interior design ideas of the 70s, and discarded mass produced objects. Despite being so overwhelming, this overhaul of the senses - a construction of clutter and celebration of the artificial - was bizarrely rather beautiful. Other works, such as 'Mountain Scene' (2006) have played on the art teaching and instruction of the step-by-step guides produced by Bob Ross and small cheeky additions to postcards of recognised works that make viewers re-read the narrative of the images'. (Sally Lai, curator).

Double Acts, curated by Sally Lai at the Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, presented a mini survey of collaborative practice in UK today, and featured a new commission by Ayling and Conroy. 'Curio Island (version one)' is a composite re-modelling of previous installations and sculptures. The notion of the island is both a reflection of the idea of an autonomous sculptural object within a group exhibition, and for Double Acts, became a strategy for displaying a unified collaborative practice alongside other collaborative practices, yet set apart, 'away from the flock'. Its form continues Ayling and Conroy's use of popular visual themes, such as mountains, waves, landscapes.

On reviewing 'Curio Island' Joanne Lee writes, 'As I wander around, the work slides in and out of focus. What at a distance I took to be a rather lumpy wall painting resolves itself as a plastic inflatable parrot, which has been carefully filleted in half and stuck to the wall to form a ready-made painting. Upon closer inspection, the small elegant nude to the side of the installation has had tattoos adhered to her alabaster body. Its rather playful - it recalls the naughty urge to draw moustaches on posters of pretty girls - however there's something quite obscene, not to say violent about the thick chrome pole onto which she's jammed: it makes me squirm uncomfortably. 

On top of the assemblage there's a bucolic sculpture of a couple, surmounted by the fronds of plastic rushes all out of scale with them (the rushes, relatively speaking, are as big as trees!) The lovers are perched on top of a bit of wall, but the romantic scene appears to have been painted magnolia, that dullest of domestic colours. 'Curio Island' oscillates and echoes, provoking competing, contrasting images... And I can't help but feel that the collaborative double act has a lot to do with the complexity of my response.' (Extract from Joanne Lee, Review of Double Acts, Phoenix.

Sally Lai, July 2007


Artist's biography

Bruce Ayling (b. 1982, UK) and Hannah Conroy (b. 1981, UK) both studied Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. Recent solo exhibitions include Eyesore Sundae, Spectacle Gallery, Birmingham (2006) and Fight for Sore Eyes, My House Gallery, Sideshow, Nottingham (2006). Group exhibitions include Double Acts, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton (2007), Stuff Happens, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham (2007), Our Survey Says, Airspace Gallery, Staffordshire (2007), Ariston, Moor Street Station, Birmingham (2007), The Vandals Stole The Handles, Wolstenholme Projects, Liverpool (2007), When Men and Mountains Meet, Gallery 01, Zagreb, Croatia (2006/7) and Here Come the Serious Quirks, Nottingham (2006).

Ayling and Conroy currently have a solo show at The City Gallery, Leicester which runs until 1 September. They live and work in Nottingham.


About Sally Lai

Sally Lai is a curator and currently a fellow on Clore Leadership Programme. She has an MA in curating from Goldsmiths College, University of London.

Until recently, Sally was curator at Chinese Arts Centre, UKs centre for the promotion of contemporary Chinese visual arts where she was responsible for devising and running of the organisations artistic programme. Amongst the curated exhibitions were Happy and Glorious, a solo exhibition by JJ Xi and Cai Yuan, (Mad for Real),Re-fashion, a fashion based exhibition which featured designers Julian and Sophie, Justin Oh and Maria Chen Pascual, Whodunnit?, a murder mystery video piece by Ming Wong. 

Her previous experience includes working as a Visual Arts Officer at Arts Council, London, curator of contemporary Asian art in Hong Kong and curator of freelance projects. She has given talks and lectures at the National Portrait Gallery, Photographers Gallery, FACT, MMU, the Fashion Curation course at London College of Fashion, and presented papers at conferences at University of Westminster and Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver.

Her advisory roles include acting as a Specialist Advisor to the Visual Arts Department of the Scottish Arts Council, a member of the Cultural Diversity Advisory Group Manchester, a nominator for the 2003 Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists, a member of the Think Tank for Freeness: a music project by Chris Ofili.

She is currently on the Action Group of Missions, Models, Money: a national action research programme addressing the challenges faced by cultural organisations in enhancing sustainability, a member of Culture Northwest, and a RSA fellow. 


Open Frequency keeps you in touch with new developments in contemporary art practice from across the UK. The artists are selected and profiled by leading curators, artists and writers, presenting the work of artists to watch out for over the coming year. Open Frequency represents a forward-looking glance today of the artists who will be setting the agenda tomorrow.