Claire Flannery marvels at Daisy Delaney's exploration of the humble receipt.
I have a tendency to get excited, sometimes a little too excited, about things. And not just art things, all kinds of things. But I have to say, this is the first time I have got excited about receipts. I’m not talking about a lottery receipt. Nope, there’s no real catch here. Daisy Delaney’s receipts, on show at PayneShurvell, are very normal, very mundane in many ways. But once you submit, once you consider what Daisy has done by entering into all of the big name art institution gift shops in London, by choosing her purchases very carefully as you do and then ask yourself to look at this mundane object like you never have before… well it becomes very interesting. And you may wonder about the countless receipts you have received in your life and, without looking at, have discarded and abandoned to the fate of the useless. You may wonder if and what part of the story of your life they could tell. You may. It’s likely you might not either and decide that I am clutching at straws here. But fear not, there is more to excite in decoding these unassuming bite-size reports of Daisy’s consuming performances.
After a quick walk around with gallery Co-Director Jo Shurvell I found myself hopping to and fro across the gallery space comparing the receipts, and in doing so comparing the institutions they've come from. The logos – ranging from clever to beautiful to boring – are all displayed proudly at the top, something you don’t see on your corner shop receipt. The Royal Academy of Arts smugly or indignantly declares that it ‘receives no public funding’. The Tate receipts tell us that Daisy was in ‘the main shop’ alerting us to the fact that there are a string of shops in the Tate galleries and a heck of a lot of consuming going on.
She was served by ‘Babs’ at the V&A, ‘CamillaB’ at the National Gallery, ‘HannahA’ at the British Museum, ‘ClaudiaS’ at Tate Modern and ‘Till:Users’ at the Saatchi Gallery and ‘Cshr Wing Trmnl 1’ at the Design Museum. Arbitrary details or clues to the institutions’ culture? Friendly or impersonal? The names themselves – all women; of what age, what race, what class? Most of the receipts include addresses, but only the V&A includes ‘England’. Did they have the demographic of their supporters in mind and that audience’s likely national pride? Then there is the story of the purchases themselves; the humour, the order, the serious and the playful. She bought two copies of ‘Photography in 100 words’ in the National Portrait Gallery, an ‘Eraser: Rosetta Stone’ at the British Museum, ‘Anarchism: A very short intro’ and ‘Revolution & War, Penguin’ at Tate Modern.
Each work has a telling title too. Naming the RA receipt ‘Sensation’ reminds us of the YBA show in 1997 which did indeed cause a sensation and also gives us another contrast; receipt called ‘sensation’. The Saatchi Gallery receipt is titled ‘Shark’ – Damien Hirst’s shark or is Saatchi the shark? The Design Museum receipt is called ‘Delorean’. I thought it was a child’s name because most of the purchases seem to be for a child. In fact it's the Northern Irish designed car infamously used in Back to the Future.
This brings us to the story of Daisy herself; Daisy the meticulous OCD artist obsessing over receipts, paying the most awkward amounts with the exact change (£21.59 at the Saatchi for example) and getting accosted by security for scaring the till staff. This Daisy, and Daisy the Formula Ford racing car driver (this is true) are one and the same. Daisy's eager to show us how she delights and thrills on everything and invites us to do the same.
Holden Cauldfield, in JD Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, considered which authors he’d like to be terrific friends with and “to call up on the phone”, judging them on this criteria. Somerset Maugham was a no go, Thomas Hardy a swell guy. Daisy Delaney is one artist I’d like to call up.
Dreams of Desire is at PayneShurvell until 11th September 2010.
4by4 continues until 2nd October 2010.
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