~LUKE MURPHY . . THE PIXELS, THE QUILT & . . THE PEEPS / UP-DATING RIGHT NOW !!!!
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WED / June 13 / 11:19am
MORPHIN’ MURPHY !!!!
LUKE MURPHY . . ‘EVERY PIXEL BRIGHT’
OPENED JUNE 1, 2018
the show runs thru JULY 15, 2018
CANADA
PIX – FROM THE OPENING:
LUKE MURPHY . . has a MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT SHELLEY moment, with his creation.
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Log Cabin Quilt’, 2018
62 x 41 x 4 in. / digital sculpture comprised of LED matrix panels programmed by the artist.
hung on the wall, it very nearly ‘captures’ the waver, sag, and thickness of a traditional colonial-era, hand-made . . cotton quilt / bedcover / blanket / comforter.
though you wouldn’t want to lay down next to it, let alone on top of !!
it’s warmth . . is purely in it’s pulsing, saturated light, and it’s deeply respectful throw-back reference.
Although Luke’s 21st c. ‘quilt’ could have easily been made to be quite straight, with rigid right angles & a super-flat surface, it’s part of this show’s mindset . . that he has manipulated the small LED matrix panels . . into a slightly dis-jointed overall unity, by way of how they are wired, or really ‘mis-wired’ (!!) or, otherwise attached to each other, to bring about a more humanistic, human-made / human-evolved / human pattern / function history / i.e. a variation of a ‘skeumorph’ affect.
so,does that make this show – all about MURPHY – MORPH ????!!
BED QUILT / LED QUILT !!!!!
that’s so super funny, when you consider how hard the original needle & thread-bearing colonial housewife strove to make her Log Cabin . . so precise !!
it was not a small thing, to have the all small log ‘units’, built up in a few rows of ascending or descending size for each basic block ‘unit’ / which then become the accumulative squares, which must meet up – not only with right-angle ‘rightness’ & precision, but, also in a complex dramatic color scheme / so that by varying scraps of light or dark textiles / the quilt maker achieves the dramatic ‘furrows’ . . or ‘diamonds’ / when viewed as a whole.
FYI . . calling all techies, geeks & the all-round / curious !!!
Luke: “the computers (the small boxes on the right) are generic Intel-based machines that I rebuild with Linux/Ubuntu/Lubuntu as the operating system & then install my custom code in a Python environment. The box on the left is just a collection of 5V/40A power supplies. The computer runs the pieces & I use commercial LED matrix panels and corresponding receiver cards to run the LED’s themselves.”
I would say above all else, because there are many varieties and sub-themes / Luke has managed to conjure up / a classic, early Amish Log Cabin, ‘Straight Furrow’ quilt. and that would be primarily due to the dynamic discipline, and overall play of the individual blocks, and of course the replication of the pure, primary / almost neon color found in the true old Amish quilts. printed textiles, even of the most rudimentary type were not allowed in Amish homes.
Luke says that he had read some of what I had written about Log Cabin quilts, had seen the recent, super amazing ‘Military Quilts’ exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum, and was watching ‘Alias Grace’ (the Margaret Atwood series on Netflix) & which I assume is there chockful of quilts. he goes on to state, “that the clincher though, was reading that the tiny center represents the hearth” / i.e. fire !! / i.e. ‘Every Pixel Bright’ !!
so yes, you can begin to see the tiny centers, of each basic block, in his rendition . . turn from orange to red to golden yellow, as the LED matrix slowly changes colors and, morphs / into a ‘slowly sagging quilt’.
a great metaphor for aging btw / but, let’s not go there.
(the sad loss of Anthony Boudain is inspiring me, to get more personal, lol.)
info overload: if you find yourself with a Log Cabin quilt that has seeming random blue or black centers, as well as orange, red or yellow ones / what you have is a ‘map’ from the Underground Railroad . . showing the way to the ‘safe houses’. . these ‘signals’ would be hung up on clotheslines out in the yard, to help the runaway slaves find their way north.
(and yes !! I have one !!
from upstate NY, the Catskills, it’s pretty darn ragged, but STILL !!!!!
MICHAEL MAHALCHICK – all a-glow in the LED light bath.
LEIF RITCHEY.
does anyone else remember the great fashion / art / music co-operative, that he ran out of a small storefront on the Lower East Side, called .. AFF ??
ART FIEND FOUNDATION, from about 2000 & onwards / for a few very good years.
SHANEQUA SIMPSON, warming herself beside the ‘Morphin’ Murphy’ – fire !!
LUKE MURPHY, ‘Kindling’, 2018. 32 x 24 x 24 in.
Digital sculpture comprised of LED matrix panels programmed by the artist.
SHANEQUA wears her colors with pride.
she also runs a blog called . . . ‘culturepeep’ !!
see: culturepeep.com
@culturepeep on IG
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH