Spencer Daly looks to standard, American construction practices to take nominal and everyday materials, such as Douglas fir lumber, steel hardware, and plastic sheeting to construct objects that defy the materials and methodology with which they are constructed.  

Spencer Daly’s work looks to the American blue collar in so far as what gives value to this piece is not complex form, not luxury materials, but instead the excessive and sometimes exaggerated labour involved in constructing an object that has a single, simple use.  

By using simple, familiar, and traditional American construction techniques, the pieces at once have a familiarity and unfamiliarity. Each piece and part is visible, bearing itself as if demanding to be seen. By matching this with a simple platonic silhouette such as “chair”, “table”, etc; the work becomes an example where 1 plus 1 equals 11. 

With visible details and protruding hardware, the pieces are often inconvenient and even dangerous when approached haphazardly, which in turn demands reverence from the one who approaches.  

Spencer Daly builds each piece by hand in his studio in Los Angeles.