James Murnane: August 2016

So near

c3 Contemporary Art Space - Project Space
Abbotsford Convent, 1 St Heliers Street, Abbotsford

August 17 - September 11

Wed-Sun 10am-5pm

Opening celebration: August 17, 6-8pm

Subtly discerning faces I have never seen in the flesh,

gently interpreting inexplicable movements of the heart.

Delicately consoled by a longing that ever increases,

slowly reading books that never end.

So near (always), so palpable (sometimes).

Bathed intermittently in the light of a heavenly country.

So near seeks to combine James’ research interests of sacred art and contemporary non-representative art making, in the hope of offering small moments of revelation and dissipation in small abstract icons. He has long been fascinated by the aesthetic, historical, and spiritual depth of Byzantine iconography and mosaics, and Gothic stained glass. Traditionally, such images act as windows for communication, the gazing back and forth between persons on opposite sides of eternity/mortality. Having simultaneously been captured by contemporary abstraction with its myriad languages, James has adopted some of the visual and spiritual elements of these forms of sacred art into the non-representative context. This is in order to open up the possibility of an experience at first visceral, and then maybe even spiritual; where form, light and meaning are at times vivid, yet just as quickly slip away.

Thanks to Jon Butt of c3, Tony Fuery (artwork documentation) and Vivian Cooper Smith (exhibition documentation).

The two lives, 2016, acrylic on linen, 87x183cm.

A will (a heart) - Teresa, 2015, acrylic on linen, 56x56cm, NFS.

Three movements of the heart, 2016, acrylic on carved Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm.

Unconsumed, 2016, acrylic on carved Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm.

Beyond the fog of some sort of imagining, 2016, acrylic on carved Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm (acquired).

Let me see the bright, bright Sun, 2016, acrylic on Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm.

An anointing, 2016, acrylic on carved Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm.

Stay with us, 2016, acrylic on carved Japanese Magnolia, 30x20cm (acquired).

Ever ancient, ever new

Korskirken, Minneparken, Arups gate, Oslo

Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 May, 2016

From Thursday to Sunday, mirroring the Easter Triduum, forty small paintings will be installed on the site of the former Korskirken (Church of the Holy Cross) in Minneparken (Memorial Park), in Oslo’s old town. Korskirken was a small parish church built in either the twelfth and thirteenth century, destroyed in the post-Reformation period and covered over for agricultural use, archaeologically excavated in the 1920’s, and is now utilised as a public park. On each of the four days the paintings will be uniquely installed within the vestiges of its walls.

These paintings could be encountered as archaeological remnants from the Stations of the Cross that may have once hung on the walls, miraculously preserved from decay. Conversely, they could be seen as seedlings of new icons springing from the ashes of the old, with their abstracted surfaces yet to be fully formed. Sacred images not yet ready to guide or teach, simply to be felt.

Be them as artefacts or seedlings, the works are highly vulnerable, open to the elements and to public space. Open to being damaged, destroyed, or stolen, in and from the vestiges of a structure that was dedicated to an instrument of supreme vulnerability, and a building which was itself razed and repurposed. And yet, when met by a consonant disarmed nature, vulnerability can lead to most tender, unexpected, and transforming encounters.

James would like to thank the Agency of Urban Environment (Bymiljotaten) and the Cultural Heritage Management Office (Byantikvaren) of the Municipality of Oslo, the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), Noplace Oslo, Lucia Murnane, Tony Fuery, Karen Nikgol, Jason Havneraas, and Laureen Lansdown.

Photos: Tony Fuery, Jason Havneraas, and James Murnane