Sand Series"

"The visual simplicity of the works at this time was fundamental to my visual needs and philosophy which came from my earlier reading of books such as "The Cloud of Unknowing" and more recently reading John Cage, Joseph Bueys, Rauchenberg, Klaus Rinke and others. It wasn't until the early 90's after many years of investigating other creative possibilities and then creating paintings of a similar simplicity that I realised how important the "Sand Series" had been. How it successfully pulled together all previous experiments, resolved the issue concerning external physical influences upon the work and how it was the last artwork created by me alone before travelling off into Art Games. The questions/problems/issues that this project threw up are many, for example the length of shadows because of the height of the sun, the strength and duration of sunlight, the daily change in the sands quality and surface pattern because of rain, wind or tide movement. They are questions that have to be considered and addressed to successfully investigate the creative visual potential of a few blades of grass against a background of sand."

His constructions/artworks showed a concern for a natural way of building, without forcing shapes, that depended on principles of support and leaning Duffy says, "I decided to work alone, to leave the studio situation, to work in urban derelict sites or fields or beaches or parks. To react to whatever situation I found myself in and use the materials and characteristics of that situation to create my artworks. It worked at first, the experience expanded to the extent that I could cope with a wide variety of materials and using only basic methods of construction create works that satisfied me greatly. Each work was part of the time I spent in each situation and when I left would change again through their ephemeral nature. Even in the chaos of a derelict site it was possible to bring an order, a discipline, to impose my reactions on it. Graffiti and the work I produced or the change I made was always noticeably different."

He goes on further to say, "Fundamental to my work is spatial awareness combined with the search for simplicity, the belief that less is more and that my art should be kept on the edge of its existence produces an integral void. This void or space has to be filled, it is a question that has to be answered and as a result the viewer becomes instinctively involved, they participate and bring to the work their own experience and potential. Art at its best isn't a monologue its a dialogue, it doesn't dictate it asks questions and in this way it involves the viewer."