PILEDRIVER
Debut Solo show for JESWRI.
“Piledriver came about after living a lifetime of being a wrestling fan, who is also fascinated by skeletons and how ‘metal’ they can be. I mixed my love of wrestling with the realism of medical journals to create the look and feel of this radical study of the human anatomy. I wanted to create these non-binary characters who didn’t necessarily resemble anyone in particular, but more so to drew attention on what they’re doing and what analogies can be drawn from the moves. For example, the piledriver move can be represented as ‘life’ dropping you on your head.
The reason why I chose medical journals as my reference point was because I’m linking these professional wrestling manoeuvres with the parallels of mental health and how wrestling has in many ways saved my life. As a kid, I lived in a very chaotic and explosive household and I would use wrestling as my escape. There were times where I spent hours on hours creating wresters on WWF Smackdown, who were far extensions of myself and who I modelled with traits that I needed myself to stand up against my alcoholic dad. I used to have dozens of wrestling figures that I’d play with religiously as a distraction; when I had to call 000 on a weekly basis, to deal with the pandemonium that became more occurring than football training.
Wrestling has always been my escape. At the start of every WWE program they run the words, ‘Please, do not try this at home’ – and I’ve used this as a parallel to match what I had growing up as a child. So, in many ways; I’ve had life drop me on my head emotionally thousands of times and just like the larger-than-life wrestlers who tell their fans to ‘never give up,’ I continue to get up after getting knocked down and move forward. Piledriver, the exhibition, is a visual representation of running a wrestling program with life itself.”
Words from Life Without Andy
