Interval (2015-17) Comprised of large format 5 x 4 in film prints, diabond-mounted (130 × 109 cms) and a video, the Interval series marked the beginning of a fascination with the curtain as a signifier for a place somewhere between fantasy and reality. The curtain may reveal or conceal and the image of the child under a spotlight may be an accepted theatrical scene or may be an artifice hiding what really lurks beneath. The blood red curtain and red dress make us question the supposed innocence of the scene and we search for clues that all is not as it seems. The empty theatre of the video evokes an eeriness: who performs to an empty room? Ultimately, a ever, Murphy gives us no answers, just the prevailing question of whether or not we can believe what we are seeing?
“The theatre curtain is re-occurring motif in my work. There is a pre-occupation with the state of unknowing that the curtain represents. Its power lies within this state of unknowing: I am drawn to find out what lies beneath/behind/beyond. Just as ‘gilded tombs do worms enfold’, so an innocuous curtain may cover up an unimagined horror. It offers itself as a liminal space, a threshold and carries with it possibility. It invites reflection on the relationship between the seen and the unseen, and the immanence of allegory or revelation in the mundane and material.” — Murphy, 2015.
This series was nominated for the Inspirational Arts Graduate Award 2015 and was exhibited at Moxie Studios Dublin and IADT Dun Laoghaire. Works from the series are held in private collections.
Intervals (2014)
CREDITS
Video: Sharon Murphy
Actor: Alice Kennedy
Editor: Sharon Murphy
