RHA Annual
September 2021
September 2021
This work from the series The
Return (2019) has been selected for RHA,
190th Annual Exhibition and will be on view from 27 September to 12 December. Varnishing
Day 26 September.
“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled,” John Berger says in the introduction to his seminal work 'Ways of Seeing' in 1972. Sharon Murphy’s image reminds us of this as we see the incongruous combination of a garden and what looks like theatre curtains. This is not new subject matter for Murphy, who often uses her theatrical past to question the reality of what we are seeing. Why are the curtains there? Did Murphy stage the image? Is there something behind the curtains? Is there an audience behind the camera? These are all questions that will never be answered as Murphy’s work is concerned with the plethora of readings that viewers can take from any image”. — from the series The Return (2019).
“The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled,” John Berger says in the introduction to his seminal work 'Ways of Seeing' in 1972. Sharon Murphy’s image reminds us of this as we see the incongruous combination of a garden and what looks like theatre curtains. This is not new subject matter for Murphy, who often uses her theatrical past to question the reality of what we are seeing. Why are the curtains there? Did Murphy stage the image? Is there something behind the curtains? Is there an audience behind the camera? These are all questions that will never be answered as Murphy’s work is concerned with the plethora of readings that viewers can take from any image”. — from the series The Return (2019).
Image: Untitled X from The Return (2019)
