Guy Reid is an artist. Guy Reid is a wood carver. Guy Reid is a father. Guy Reid is a same-sex lover. Guy Reid is a non-believer. Guy Reid is a man.
All of these statements are true about Guy Reid and yet they do not make up a whole picture of him. They are only possible ways to see him as a human being and it is in the multiplicity of his personas that we must look at his work. We can also see exactly what he looks like as he carves himself into many different figures. Some he leaves in the raw wood, others are painted green and in the MOCA exhibition we see him in a light purple, a lavender perhaps. Lavender is a colour that recalls France, where he lives and works, but also a long held prejudice that homosexuals have a ‘lavender network’.
Reid asks us to question belief systems that go right back to the beginning of human consciousness, including a belief in art and in making. His skills as a craftsman and an artist open the work for each viewer to cast their own meaning to these vulnerable, naked men, who might stand in for each and every one of us, regardless of sex, gender or orientation.
Michael Petry, 2017
| Duration | 27 March 2017 - 29 April 2017 |
| Times | Open Thursday to Saturday during exhibition periods 2pm - 6pm |
| Cost | Free |
| Venue | MOCA London |
| Address | 113 Bellenden Road, London, SE15 4QY |
| Contact | / info@mocalondon.co.uk / www.mocalondon.co.uk |