My first solo show, 2008, in Monster Truck Gallery and Studios, it was an exhibition about the two worlds I existed in and how they can meet: the world of my brothers, young rural working-class and the art world (slightly older, and generally more middle-class). In the exhibition these two worlds clashed. It involved two worlds overlapping like in a Venn diagram. Inside in the art space you had these two worlds meeting in the form of pictures on the walls. In the back room, then, you had the boys’ world invading the art space, with the walls covered in the kind of images you’d find on their bedroom walls, in a space they made for themselves. Lastly, outside was their car: the viewer was encouraged to get inside the car and be driven around the block while listening to recorded interviews I had taken on the sound system—this was the art world invading their space. On the night of the opening I also bussed up a number of the “boys”, and had them literally invade the art space, I then sold safari tickets to people who had come to the opening to enjoy a “night out” in the wild “with the lads” in Athboy Co. Meath.
