HAYDEN KAYS, The Sun, The Moon & The Truth, 2011 www.haydenkays.blogspot.com
HAYDEN KAYS Roll the clock back a year, I’m in the Aubin Gallery and we’ve been hit by Kays, he’s put stickers all over the shop. A cheap promotional trick that got my back up, especially as a year on the sticky residue has done just that, resided! Despite the fact that from the off he annoyed me, I can’t help but admire the chutzpah of the lad, who sent ransom note style letters to my old gallery manager. In a way he reminds me of a younger me, which despite what it sounds like isn’t a good thing. Anyway, all the antics aside, Hayden has an incredible ability to cut to the chase of an issue. He’s the master of the one liner. He’s clever, a media pundit hidden behind a concrete poet. It’s hard to refine a vocabulary that is so effective and so economical. Like Hirst at his most annoying (and I suppose his cleverest) what marks Hayden out as someone pushing things on, is his willingness to antagonize. Resistance is important because it tests conventions, if he’s brave enough to continue doing it I’m sure at some point he’ll press all of our buttons.