DAVID MURPHY

ALMOST ISLAND
15th JAN – 11th FEB 2011
PREVIEW - 14thJAN 2011

CoExist are pleased to present Almost Island, a collection of new works developed specially for
Southend by London-based Sculptor David Murphy. It marks a first Solo Exhibition for both the gallery
and the artist.

Much of Murphy’s work deals with the relationship of land to water, and situates itself frequently in the
impermanent, edgeless territory between the two. He sees these areas as sites of contention, fought for
spaces, keeping in and keeping out, attack and defence. Almost Island – a literal translation of ‘Peninsula’ - has
its investigative origins in the area called 'Doggerland' – the name given to the landmass that once provided a
land bridge between the UK and the Netherlands. It sits now under the North Sea, an enormous sandbank
containing the remains of monkeys, elephants and lions, long-since obscured by rising sea-levels and changing
geography. It is also said that the River Thames was once a tributary of the Rhine, and this great river cut right
across ‘Doggerland’ before continuing its course out into the Channel.

The interest in this quasi-mythical landscape formed the basis of Murphy’s M4 Gastatelier / Artquest residency
(2010) in Amsterdam, and expanded his interests in how landscape is continually manipulated and managed by
its inhabitants. Notions of Utility run through the work; how and for what purposes things are built, mapped,
measured and organised. Murphy sees the act of building as an essentially positive, affirmative act, extending
both to architecture and sculpture. But these acts are continually shadowed by an awareness of their
essential fallibility in the face of nature and passing time. Things are borrowed rather than owned, concrete
crumbles, and retreat inevitably follows each advance.

David Murphy studied at Newcastle College, and Glasgow School of Art. Selected group shows include Bursary
Awards, Royal Society of British Sculptors, London (2007); SLOW, August Art/Edward Cullinan Architects, London
(2008); Another Place, Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, China (2008-9);
Impromptu, Schwartz Gallery, London (2009), and the Jerwood Drawing Prize (2009/10). He was artist in
residence at M4 Gastatelier, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2010), and Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop, Scotland,
(2010); he presented work at Kunstvlaai/TÜYAP Art Fair Istanbul, Turkey (2010). He lives in London.

www.davidwmurphy.co.uk www.haendebitte.blogspot.com

A free limited edition publication will follow the exhibition, with an essay by Pedro Faria.

This exhibition is kindly supported by Water Weights, EEDA, Essex and Suffolk Water, and Arts Council England.