12 August–1 October 2005

I Want To Be You examines the phenomena of the bouncy castle, its components and how its bizarre architecture – why a castle? – has become a  familiar object in today’s society. Deconstructing the materials of a bouncy castle with lo-tech materials Murphy creates a playful, emblematic installation in the Project Room which reflects Murphy concerns.

Clive Murphy’s practice constantly considers ideas relating to the position of the individual in terms of an increasingly ‘mass’ oriented environment, exploring themes of alienation and desire within this context. Through a combination of humor, pathos and incongruity he infiltrates commercial, urban and visual literacy in order to deconstruct rhetorical systems and prepackaged aspirational frameworks in an effort to carve out some sense of human space. Working in a characteristically lo-fi manner using materials and techniques that exist quite far down on the artistic food chain he strives for ends greater than the sums of their parts in an effort to elevate and democratise.

Clive Murphy is currently exhibiting in Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2005) and the Off-Site exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin organised by Pallas Studios (2005). He has been awarded a residency in New York by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland commencing in October of this year and has recently been selected to attend the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s International Residency Programme.

Dawn Williams
Assistant Curator
Crawford Municipal Art Gallery
Emmet Place
Cork  Ireland
T: +353 (0) 21 4907853
F: +353 (0) 21 4805043