Downey’s interventions, on which he sometimes cooperates with other artists like Akay, almost always take place in urban contexts and are developed for specific sites. Often realized without assignment or permit, they interrupt given formal or social circumstances by changing their functionality or rendering them defunct.

The at times subtle “disturbances” of the cityscape can be “corrected” by passers-by or construction workers soon afterwards. Other works integrate with urban situations for longer periods of time. They subvert our usual routines of perception, challenge our sense of criticism and judgment and involve the audience’s reaction in the sense of a “social sculpture”. Downey’s succinct, slapstick-derived humor, used to reflect societal issues as well as political power structures, is their common thread and defining element.