STEEL AND WOOD

“IT IS EASIER TO DESCRIBE DAVY’S WORK THAN TO ACCOUNT FOR ITS EXTRAORDINARY EFFECT. OBJECTS PROTOTYPICALLY CONSIST OF A FEW LENGTHS OF RUSTY-LOOKING METAL JOINED IN SPARE UPRIGHT-AND-ANGLE FRAMEWORKS. APEXES OF ANGLES ARE TOPPED BY SHORT, STUMPY LENGTHS OF LOG, SOMETIMES FIRE-SCORCHED, OCASIONALLY REPLACED BY STONES. THE MONUMENTAL “ROLLING FORK” TAKES UP A WHOLE GALLERY WITH JUST THREE BIG ANGLES AND LOGS. IT’S OVERT FORMALISM IMMEDIATELY GIVES WAY TO A RICH SERIES OF ASSOCIATIONS. IT LOOKS LIKE A MEDIEVAL BATTERING RAM OR THREE DOOMED DINOSAURS MARCHING INTO A QUAGMIRE. THE LOGS ARE DISEMBODIED CEREBRAL CORTICES INVENTING PURE PHILOSOPHY AND MATHEMATICS.  EVERY WORK EVAKES A VARIATION ON THIS ALMOST ALCHEMICAL MIXTURE OF PURE FORMALISM AND SUBLIMINAL EVOCATION OF IMAGERY AND SENSATION. FIVE LITTLE MAQUETTES IN A ROW SUGGEST EVERYTHING FROM A SHINTO SHRINE TO THE PREHISTORIC POSTURES OF THE PILOBOLUS DANCE TROUPE.  DAVY SEEMS TO HAVE HIT UPON A BASIC LEXICON ON MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE THAT PERMITS VIRTUALLY INEXHAUSTIBLE EXPRESSIVE EXTENSION. HE IS CERTAINLY AMONG THE MOST IMPORTANT HALF-DOZEN ARTISTS DEVELOPED HERE IN THE ‘70S.” 

- WILLIAM WILSON, ART CRITIC, los angeles times, SEPTember, 1981