Ryan Siegan Smith (alias Leeroy the Duck), (1982)

Ryan Siegan-Smith’s, born in Ulverston, UK, studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Städelschule, Frankfurt (2009) were he was awarded for a film award. His multilayered practice consists of animations, film, sound and sculptures and is often staged around alter ego’s and characters such as that of Leeroy the Duck. For Witte de With he recently created the theatrical piece entitled Leeroy! (2010), an almost surreal set of digital as well as analogue imagery around an animated Duck. Leeroy contemplates his feet and speaks his mind in a powerful booming Duck voice, a joined force for an act on stage. Alterego Leeroy directs his attention as much to the audience as to the interactive computer projection on the wall on which he (re)enacts, and reflects on, his digital Self. Recent group exhibitions were Let Us Compare Mythologies, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2010); Throwing Three Balls in the Air to get a Straight Line, Malmo Konsthall (2010); Rundgang, Stadelschule, Frankfurt am main (2009); Echo, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh (2008); Amateur Human Beings, Lobot, Oakland California (2006); AAA Kimachi Greenhouse, Yamaguchi, Japan (2006).