kendal murray

Walking Sideways and Smiling

New England Regional Art Museum 04/09/2003

" Walking Sideways and Smiling " revisits my research into the fantasy and playfulness of daydreams within the structure of the everyday and was exhibited at the New England Regional Art Museum in 2003 and at Gallery S.P in Dank Street, as part of Sculpture 2004.

In this body of work timber panels have been pierced, carved, cut into pieces and reconnected around an assortment of miniature windows, found objects, pebbles, twigs, wire and string to express the fragmentary experience of the daydream. Scratches, grazes, dings, worn patina and weathered surfaces over an assortment of house hold tools, buckles, keys, musical instruments and children's toys prompt the experience of nostalgia. Each artwork offers the viewer and invitation to travel from the present to the past and then to the fantasy space of "Once Upon a Time" through a variety of narratives.

The patterns that both embellish and excavate the surface of the timber panels encourage connections with sampling, patchwork quilts, architecture and landscape. They work to make connections between the physical and emotive experiences of travelling through changing circumstances and ideas. The carving of the timber panels is used to create an impression of personal narration, of tracing and retracing time and space.

The layering of the panels and windows add to the experience of building a complexity of experiences and ideas. The windows represent attempts to locate the desire of the daydream narrative and the pebbles represent personal talismans that are collected on individual journeys.

Kendal Murray, 2003

Portable Dreams
Portable Dreams
Timber, lime wash, string, leather, brass,
pebbles and found objects
37cm x 40cm x 8cm
SHOWS