Serge Murphy Serge Murphy
Opening on Saturday, November 4, 2006, 5 pm
“The essential part of who we are is invisible. Our body is a summary of our lives that can only partially communicate the singularity of our experiences because it is linked to a social time that evens out our actions. What we show of ourselves often reflects how we see others. Serge Murphy insists on giving shape to what he is made of and on making tangible the elusive network of significant events in his life.” – Célia Charvet, Le temps de Serge Murphy, Semaine 77 (winter 2005), Arles, France, p. 5
At OBORO, Serge Murphy presents three new, large-format pieces with complementary spatial, floor and wall configurations.
The Vegetable Dream (2005)
Hanging from the ceiling, a dozen wire-drawn shapes support fictional or approximate materials and objects, which remain nameless. What’s missing for IT to happen, for everything to finally appear? I must see to it.
On the Edge of a Successful Landscape (2006)
On the floor, several trays present various objects and materials, raw or sophisticated. Here, a por-celain tree or a red wool ball; there, an abstract sculpture or a mountain of paper pellets. This landscape is positively mine. I recognize it.
The Human Scale (2006)
On the wall, over one hundred drawings on paper act as signs mimicking a geography of the soul with holes, traces of mood swings and colours. It’s me again, with remains.
Serge Murphy lives and works in Montréal. His sculptures spread out in space while his video works are both narrative and experimental. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Québec, Canada and Europe, and a retrospective of his work over the past ten years was featured in 2005 in Montbéliard and Marseille, France. Produced in collaboration with Charles Guilbert, his videos have been presented in several galleries, museums and festivals, in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Mexico and India. In 2004 they received the Canada Council’s Bell Canada Award in Video Art for their body of work.