172 x 240mm, 98 pages, Risograph & colour printing, Perfect bound, Softcover w/ foil, Edition of 300, 2026

David Sherry makes sculpture, drawing, video and performance work that reflects upon the absurdity of everyday life. This exhibition includes a selection of his videos recording performances that date from the late 1990s to the present day. These are shown alongside several of Sherry’s painted banners, made as ‘set lists’ for performances.

His work derives from pushing at the boundaries of social expectation. As he loads margarine onto his shirt sleeve, squirts ketchup onto his face or examines objects with pointed intensity, Sherry’s performances are reminiscent of the way children interact with the world, with a sense of curiosity, unburdened by presuppositions about how they ‘should’ behave. His work allows a wry smile at such expectations, asking how our complicity with them laces society together.

Many of his performances are shaped by the format of deadpan observational comedy as he monologues on social anxieties and their interactions with a wider political picture. Often out on the street, Sherry performs to a backdrop of traffic and bustling pedestrians. Passersby offer anything from a glance to a conversation as they encounter him standing on a plinth, painting a curb the colour of a curb, traipsing about town with  a precarious cargo of cardboard boxes or having his hair painted to the pavement. Sherry’s work looks askance at the social codes of the public realm, rupturing the fabric of daily life.

This publication collects various works from the past five years so. 

Includes text by Sally O'Reilly, Francis McKee & Dr. Marcus Jack. 

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