Conor McFeely: Partial Objects. A Conversation Between Artist Conor McFeely and Art Historian Gabriel Gee
Gabriel Gee, Franklin University Switzerland
Gabriel Gee’s conversation with the Northern Irish artist Conor McFeely curls around the notion of overt and cover meaning, especially in five objects that form part of discreet pieces of art. It becomes clear that each piece offers a range of interpretive possibilities, often containing hidden elements that function as the existential roots of each piece. These roots, in the form of aesthetic elements, in turn might be understood as symptoms of submerged pasts and places, and traces of experiences too traumatic to remember. The notion of partiality – of incompleteness – is central to McFeely’s art: it implies at once a search for the lost or hidden or veiled part, and a vexed relationship to parts that can take the form of desire, for instance, or of fixation.
Keywords: Conor McFeely, Northern Ireland, contemporary art, trauma, incompleteness