David Garratt
My practice centres on engagement with the public and aspects of interactivity with willing participants. This engagement sometimes incorporates actions such as a hug or high five and aims to encourage social interaction with the public to create humorous and vibrant installations and events.
I work largely with lo-fi materials such as postcards, badges, cardboard and paper to create interactive works and editions that aim to start a conversation or communication with its recipients. Humour has a large involvement with my work and I often reference aspects of celebrity culture and comment on the emptiness of modern life to add a touch of the absurd to what is at heart a subtle gesture or social concern.
Past work includes ‘Reciprocate my smile’ in which I encouraged people to make Derby a happy city by handing out postcards that encouraged them to smile at passing strangers and ‘hug a human’ in which I set up a centre for hugs in which people could come to gain affection from a fellow human. I also work in mail art as it suits the lo-fi and sometimes privately public nature of my work and once received a joke from Tony Blair after sending him a request for one. My practice switches from floor and wall based gallery work to badges and pamphlets and these two areas of study usually collide to create the effect of the treasure and the map.
