Pat Flynn at Second Act Gallery
Through an assemblage of familiar yet recontextualised objects, Pat Flynn deftly investigates the intersections of faith, skepticism, and the enticements of pseudo-science. The result, says Jamie Holman, is an exhibition that oscillates between the deeply personal and the universally relevant, crafting a contemporary mythology for an era of hyper-reality.
Pat Flynn, Juice, installation view © Kate Bones
In ‘Juice’, at Second Act Gallery, Manchester based artist Pat Flynn presents a solo exhibition of works that include hyperreal, digitally-rendered images that inhabit an uncanny space between pop culture, urban legends, and personal mythology. His subjects oscillate between the everyday and the emblematic, their meanings shifting under scrutiny.
In Healer, 2015 Flynn depicts a non descript interior with rows of utilitarian plastic chairs - possibly a community centre or a space for a talk or gathering. Captured from an angle that draws the viewer’s eye towards a discarded walking stick at the centre of the image, the colours of the chairs and surroundings are muted, almost clinical, while a slight soft focus adds to the functional neutrality. This work conjures the disgraced televangelist Peter Popoff, demonstrating how few elements are necessary to hold onto the status of ‘a messiah’ and how instantaneously they can dissolve.
Flynn compels the viewer to examine the structures we invest in, both consciously and unconsciously, and to question the narratives we embrace to keep ourselves Juiced.
In Wise Man / Shining City Upon a Hill, 2015 (below) Flynn’s emerald green tonal colour-way alludes to the veiled manipulator behind the curtain in The Wizard of Oz. Opposite, Juice, 2015 describes an ornate altar representative of one from St Catherine of Siena church in Lowton, Lancashire. In place of a crucifix, a loose cable hangs down, disrupting the symmetry and subtly weaving in Flynn’s own narrative, again, fusing familiar tropes with autobiographical strands. This synthesis results in a series of works that balances skepticism with reverence, analysis with emotion.
Pat Flynn, Juice, installation view © Kate Bones
A sense of illusion pervades the exhibition - not in the mystical sense, but in the way Flynn constructs and dismantles meaning through artifice. These images interrogate belief systems as disparate as religion, consumerism, or the curated identities we project online. The exhibition’s title, ‘Juice’, hints at notions of vitality, connectivity, and flow, yet equally suggests an unrelenting craving for stimulation—a desire for the next ideological charge. Flynn compels viewers to examine the structures we invest in, both consciously and unconsciously, and to question the narratives we embrace to keep ourselves Juiced.
Since launching in Shoreditch in 2023, Second Act Gallery has consistently highlighted creative voices from the North, specifically those from working-class backgrounds. This commitment serves to amplify the themes in Flynn’s work, which is acutely engaged with notions of access and influence—how institutions, whether religious, political, or cultural, sculpt our longings and fears. That this exhibition unfolds within a space dedicated to challenging prevailing narratives only heightens its impact.
‘Juice’ is a timely and incisive exhibition—one that deftly captures the contradictions of contemporary existence with both wit and poignancy. It is an invitation to pause, to question, and perhaps to acknowledge the fictions we willingly consume. Flynn’s work does not offer definitive answers, but in its ambiguity, it extends something more valuable: the space to reflect, to doubt, and, however fleetingly, to believe.
Pat Flynn ‘Juice’ is at Second Act Gallery until 8th March 12 -16:00 Thursday to Saturday. www.secondactgallery.co.uk