The following text was first published by Artspace, December 2009.

In Raw Attempts Auckland based artist Richard Maloy treats Artspace as both a gallery and a studio space. For a period of 85 days, from the first day of installation through to the last day of the exhibition, Maloy is developing large scale sculptural forms daily within the gallery. In doing so he responds to a set of self-imposed restrictions which in turn respond to the materials and physical site. Working unseen at night and in gallery downtime, the resulting changes become apparent to regular visitors over time, conjuring up glimpses of the process of making. 

The exhibition departs from the traditional trajectory of building to a polished finale on opening night. Instead, Maloy’s show reveals itself to us again and again, in a constant state of flux. Works evolve over time then are dismantled and reconstructed to make new assemblages. The moment of encounter by an audience might occur at any point in the shifting evolution of the work, providing a reading which can only ever be provisional rather than absolute. 

Maloy is an artist who works within and across the disciplines of photography, sculpture, video, installation. Raw Attempts flip-flops between sculpture, installation and a type of performance. Maloy’s work exudes a type of tactility created through a pared back playfulness which highlights the formal qualities of the informal materials he deploys. 

The materials Maloy employs are the pedestrian matter which surrounds us, for this particular project using cardboard, tape, paint and staples. In his hands they are liberated from utility and given free rein; folded, bent, piled up, cut, joined and added to. Even when presented in the most minimal methods of display they retain an odd type of suggestive perversity.