Freddy examines various forms of graphic imagery that occupy and define our ‘public’ spaces, and how exposure to such imagery both conditions and desensitises us.
He explores why, for example, urban graffiti and street art are criminalised, while commercial advertising, which occupies highly prominent public locations, is legitimised.
Unlike the gallery space, where viewers intentionally expose themselves to visual cultural references which have been curated, graphic imagery presented publicly is indiscriminate in that the viewer has no control over the quality and content of the imagery they are exposed to.
Freddy’s current work explores how street art murals have been used as cultural signifiers, to both propagate ideology and segregate communities in Northern Ireland.