The Art of EncounterJohn Murphy's practice can be characterised through his use of existing material, such as reproductions and ready-mades. For this exhibition, his fourth at Lisson Gallery since 1985, Murphy has created visually austere but conceptually complex configurations of found images, objects and texts using post cards, books, film stills, painting and poetry. Preoccupied with the relationship between vision, things and language whilst playing on the theme of similarity and difference, John Murphy's art historical lineage can be traced through a specifically European Symbolist-based conceptual tradition descending from Mallarmé and Jarry through to Duchamp, Magritte and Broodthaers. The artist's process of accumulating and arranging fragments of images and language is echoed in the viewer's experience of the finished exhibition, where memories of things encountered shape the perception of other things yet to be seen. The blurring of boundaries between past and present is emphasized by Murphy's practice of revisiting his own material and re- presenting previously exhibited works in different configurations potentially generating new meanings. Neither a purely perceptual or conceptual experience, the exhibition is conceived as a work of art in its own right, creating a space where the viewer is constructed as the subject establishing the relationship between reading and seeing, and where meaning is necessarily unfixable.--Lisson gallery website. |
Contents
Yohaku Emptiness 1999 | 10 |
Going to Meet Stones 19881992 | 36 |
Out of Control 1978 | 176 |
20 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
abstract ambiguous Anish Kapoor appear Arte Povera artistic expression artwork Barnett Newman become body bring brush canvas closed color concept condition connected consciousness contemporary art context create criticism culture Daniel Buren dialogue elements empty space encounter event everyday everything exhibition existence externality feel Gerhard Richter hand human ideas identity ikebana images imagination infinite infinity interaction Japan Japanese Joseph Beuys kind Kobayashi Hideo Korea Lee Ufan limited Lisson Gallery living looking Malevich Marcel Duchamp materials matter meaning mediation Minimal Art modern Mono-ha moving natural stone non-transparent object Paik painter painting and sculpture physical pictorial surface possible present production qualities reality reason reconstruction rejected relationship reproduction Richard Serra robots sculpture seen sense shadow Shan-Jen sort steel plate stimulating structure surrounding space things thinking thought Tokyo transcends translation transparent tree unknown viewer vision words writing Yves Klein