Val Murray has always been fascinated by the ordinary places, objects and activities which make up the world she inhabits. How do humans and their environments, natural and built, interact? Murray is interested in Mabey, Tsing et al’s ideas of complex interrelations between species and survival in a ruined planet through ‘wonderous attention’ and ‘creative curiosity. She documents examples of entanglements aiming to make tangential reference to human impact on the natural world rather than to ‘preach’
Collage (2D and 3D), the composition of different elements, the power of one thing juxtaposed with another, has always been at the core of Murray’s practice. Her current work is a combination of sculptural interest in form and space with making photographs. Murray is investigating the construction of the photographic image to see how it can represent the layered identity of the ordinary and extend its imaginative possibilities. Murray Works in series so that images cross-connect and narratives are extended. Her digital images can be presented in various sizes, formats and contexts including online, publication, exhibition and installation.
By creating tableaux that bring together images, natural and made objects of various scales Murray explores our relationship to nature through the microcosm of a domestic setting. She is interested in the agency of materials and objects and their capacity to evoke a narrative. her images are disquieting rather than didactic allowing space for viewers to make connections, to explore possible narratives, to ask ‘What is Going on Here?’.
Self-taught or art school?
I went to Art School in Manchester as a mature student after doing other things…
If you could own one work of art what would it be?
I would love to own Louise Bourgeois’s: Mother – a magnificent, enormous spider from a tiny creature, which dominates whatever space it’s in-gallery, lake or my back garden. Great title too! If that’s not available I’ll be happy with Cornelia Parker’s Cold Dark Matter.
How would you describe your style?
My work is a mixture of Sculpture and Photography, collage 2D and 3D, realistic with a surreal edge.
Can you tell us about your artistic process?
I take photographs, collect stuff, fiddle around putting things together.
Is narrative important within your work?
There are hints of potential narratives in my work but I like people to make up their own.
Who are your favourite artists and why?
I like Jeff Wall’s constructed tableaux, Suzanne Moxhay and Sarah Westphal’s mysterious interiors and Clare Gallagher’s strange domestic still lives.
What or who inspires your art?
I am fascinated by our relationship to the wonders and the crisis in the natural world and interested in the various people who write about it like Richard Maybey and Anna Tsing.
Where’s your studio and what’s it like?
My studio was once my living room, on the ground floor, a large room flooded with morning light, doors to the garden, full of stuff, a big armchair!
Do you have any studio rituals?
To get going I lay out and pair up images and stuff, in order to review what I’m doing I surprise the work in progress by constructing the moment to view it afresh with coffee in hand.
What are you working on currently?
I am making an ongoing series Home Decor, photographic tableaux looking at our appropriation of nature in home design with an underlying concern for our relationship to nature in general.
Where can we buy your art?
Ask me or visit http://valmurray.uk
