British artist Richard Dean Hughes describes the slippery relationship between the real and hypothetical. Hughes often revisits and describes a personal and internal space, taking artifacts, feelings and ‘visuals’ from imagined scenarios, bringing them into real time through the manipulation of material and collisional objects. His sculptures question the idea of plausibility, they question their own existence, acting as a representational display of the space in which Hughes is trying to describe. Often drawing from history Hughes generates a real sense of place and time within the work; evoking a frustration within the viewer by emphasising a disconnect with the primary content of the work. The inclusion of the majestic and the past tense exaggerates a change in modern society and our fragile relationship with nature, tradition and history. 'For me I am interested in the sensation, be it positive or negative, we feel when we acknowledge that history seems so much more profound than the present, it is in some way this sensation, or this illusion, that I try to embed within the work.'
Suggestion and the idea of plausibility is central to Hughes’s practice, repeated motifs and a collisional approach create unordinary but persuasive coalescence. Hughes explores the relationship between object and image, Using both sculpture and painting he combines traditional methodologies of making with cold contemporary methods of production and material. This crossover of 'spaces' is something I am interested in my sculptural work, using light and image to act as some kind of portal for the motifs and objects to fall in and out of.' The Push and pull between the painted image and object seem to render the sculpture as memorial.
Fundamentally Hughes theoretically and conceptually slices up the time-based elements of an object, then hypothetically stitches them back together; treating the concept and history of an object as something that can be manipulated to create a new scenario, extract meaning and tell a new story.
Hughes incorporates a wide range of traditional processes alongside new technologies, and an ever-growing array of materials from resin, metal, polyurethane and paint, to dust and newspaper. Using small tools to carve certain works, then stereo-lithography to produce others; like his work, Hughes shifts and morphs, reacting to the concept, and the language of generated ideas.
Hughes is able to draw from his material repertoire and interest in painting to continue an exploration of duality, the materiality and concepts of his work belong in two places at one time, can be 2 things at the same time; both hot and cold, utilitarian and absurd.
He lives and work in Manchester, UK.
Exhibitions and Events:
2024 - And the Safe Spots Become Impassable. Curated by Yisi Li and Ethan Yip. Hong Kong.
2024- Twelve Thousand - Duo Show with Nicola Ellis is dissused tram warehouse, Manchester.
2024- 'A Mirror to Vanity, Brooke Bennington, London.
2023- 'This be the Verse. Xxijrahii Gallery, London.
2023 - 'Things Fall Apart, the Centre Cannot Hold.' Tabula Rasa Gallery, London.
2023 - 'Ubiquitous no.14.' Tube Gallery, Palma, Spain.
2023 - 'Centre Of the Periphery.' Pipeline Gallery, London.
2022 - 'Everything at Once.' Generation and display, London, Duo show
2022 - Art Maze Magazine, issue 24 - https:artmazemag.com/issue-24/
2022 - Floorr Magazine, issue 10 - Featured Interview http://www.floorrmagazine.com/
2021 - 'Subliminal Thaw' Night Time Story, Los Angeles, Online Solo Show
2021 - 'Off Trail' Air Gallery, Manchester
2021 - 'Vent' 9A Gallery, Todmorden Yorkshire, Duo Show
2020 – ‘Soft Display’ Division Of Labour, Worcester
2020 – ‘When Shit Hit’s The Fan' Guts Gallery, London (Online)
2020 – ‘A Better Feeling’ A Better feeling, (collaboration with design company) – Paris France
2019- ‘The Manchester Contemporary’ Solo Booth, Paradise Works, Manchester Central
2019 – ‘Millenialism’ Paradise Works, Salford
2018 – (Solo Show) ‘No Cigar’ Goldtapped Gallery, Newcastle
2018 – The Manchester Contemporary – Show Me Up
2018 – Feature – Rung Magazine – Produced and curated by East Bristol Contemporary
2018 – ‘Merry Go Round Broke Down’ AIR Gallery, Altrincham
2018 – ‘Tipping The Scales’ Paradise Works, Salford, Manchester
2017 – ‘A Show About The Show’ Scaffold Gallery, Manchester
2017 – ‘Pupa’ Assembly House, Leeds
2017 – ‘Is This Real Life??’ Curated by I.O.U.A.E, B&D studios, Newcastle
2017 – ‘PLAY’ Bankley Gallery, Manchester
2017- ‘Duizend Bommen En Granaten’ Stitching White Cube, Kunsthal 45, Den Helder Netherlands
2017 – ‘Limbic’ Cuddle Projects, Art Hub, London
2017 – ‘Stick Or Twist’ Castlefield Gallery, Manchester
2017 – ‘Mono’ PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester
2016 – Global Village – Stitching White Cube:
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Honig-factory, Zuideinde 74, 1541 CE Koog a/d Zaan, the Netherlands
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Youth Hostel, Richard-Schirrmann-Weg 6, 84028 Landshut, Germany
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Kulturhuset Brønden, Brøndby Strand Center 60, 2660 Brøndby Strand, Denmark
2016 – MarlerKunst 2016, Essen, Germany
2016 – ‘Darkness Can Not Drive Out Darkness, Only Light Can Do That’ Lights of Soho, London
2016 – ‘Ambition – Instigate Arts’ HOME Gallery, Manchester
2016 – ‘Spectrum’ PS Mirabel Gallery, Manchester
2015 ‘XerXes Sculpture Prize’ Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park, London
2015 ‘A Slow Passion’ Federation House: Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Space Manchester
2015 – ‘Our Hands Were Always Dirty But Our Minds Were Always Clean’ Fallout Factory, Liverpool
2014 – ‘Noise Festival 2014 Launch’ Curators choice: Tim Marlow. House of Commons, London
2014 – ‘The Best New Creatives’ ‘Noise 2014’ Better Bankside and Southbank, London
2014 – ‘Noise at The Tetley’ The Tetley, Leeds