Thursday, 12 March 2015

Salt Licked Gummy Bears

Benjamin Bridges visits Michael O'Reilly's exhibition at Cabin Gallery and imagines what it would be like to be a giant gummy bear.


From left to right: VAMOOSE, TAR and SWASHING FEVER (2014)

On a Saturday when I was a wee lad my parents would take us to the sweet shop behind our house. A wall of little treasures not sold by weight but collected individually in off-white paper bags. I remember looking at their intense hues, thinking these translucent fruits and rubbery eggs could be mine for merely a penny a piece. I would ponder over which ones to get with my allotted 20p fretting as to whether I should invest a quarter of my capital into a big sugary dummy.