Page 9 - Art First: Jack Milroy: INterVENTIONS

Jack Milroy INterVENTIONS

‘Surrealism, then, neither aims to subvert realism, as does the fantastic,
nor does it try to transcend it. It looks for different means by which
to explore reality itself.’*

The title of his latest exhibition, INterVENTIONS, is a subtle and carefully poised hint at both the
nature and the spirit of Jack Milroy’s work. It is at once a playful and often humorous path that
he treads, but also one of true discovery–of the uncovering and constructing of entirely new
perspectives and interpretations of the existing imagery that is his vocabulary.

Milroy’s practice as an artist is a dichotomous operation, relying on two distinct functions.
The first, a calculating ‘left brain’ approach is that of an avid collector. Vast amounts of imagery
on any and every subject and scale are absorbed into the studio by Milroy’s keen eye. Grandiose
and humble, sacred and profane, everything from the seminal paintings of Hieronymous Bosch
to the cheerful advertising images on discarded sardine cans find themselves laid out for catego-
rization and appropriation into the whole.

Neither is this collecting impulse restricted to purely visual imagery. Unlike many artists who
define and tend only their own personal constructed narrative, Milroy is a fervent collector
of stories, both fictional and factual. The theme(s) of his work over the past decades cover
an astonishing breadth of engagement with subjects both serious and whimsical. A key charac-
teristic of this engagement is the equality with which Milroy treats his material. Sociologically Facing page: Japanese Garden (detail), 2010 • cut and constructed book, 31.5 x 189 x 22 cm
sensitive objects (such as printed money and official papers in his mash-up collages of the 1970’s
and 80’s) and subjects (such as the modern day horror-stories of9/11 and the darkly classic fairy-
tales of Hans Christian Anderson in his Into the Dark Wood series of the early 2000’s) have never
been off limits, and the combination of these charged and raw elements with the larger pool
of illustrational imagery in Milroy’s studio has contributed hugely to the visual and emotional
richness in his work, as has the lightness of touch and sharply honed wit that allows him
to ‘disarm’ otherwise dangerous subjects without completely robbing them of their power
or dragging them into farce.

*The Myth of the World: Surrealism 6, ed Michael Richardson, Dedalus Books, 1994