Arby's
September 2019
A collection of R's and B's bought and curated by Rick Banger Gallery in Murphy 500.
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Murphy 500 at Rick Banger
"Arbys", a show curated by Rick Banger in the Murphy 500 space was documented and then that documentation was exhibited in the Rick Banger virtual gallery space. This flip flopping gesture enacted Murphy 500 as a sculptural object. It was no longer simply an exhibition space. It became a one of one sculpture made by an artist in the artist's studio. A screen recording documenting the artist attempting to document the show via an online .gif generator was shown in the Rick Banger virtual space. Rick Banger exhibits his objects irl in the Murphy 500 space, then the Murphy 500 space is documented as a sculpture which then gets shown in the Rick Banger virtual space.
Murphy 500 as seen on Rick Banger (2019)
Murphy 500 as seen in the info section at rickbanger.com
Rick Banger Gallery is pleased to present Murphy 500 by Conor Murphy, the result of a long term collaborative project between Rick Banger Gallery and the artist.
Since the end of July, Rick Banger Gallery and I have maintained an email chain that might actually be more interesting than the work itself. The chain began with an abrupt and loose idea for an exhibition that would ultimately whirlwind into a classic case of, “who done it?” Simply “showing” work in the Rick Banger online gallery space was too easy. Too predictable. Instead, I wanted to see if it was possible to show nothing at all. Or at least perform a matador’s side step routine, allowing the opportunity of showing my own artwork to go right by, but not without first staining my traje de luces.
That being said, the work that is seen in the Rick Banger Gallery is an apathetic attempt at documenting “Arby’s”, a solo show curated by Rick Banger Gallery. A collection of Rs and Bs ordered and delivered by Amazon.com.
“Arby’s” was the inaugural show at Murphy500, an exhibition space located in the graduate studio of artist Conor Murphy. This tiny space was carved out of his studio with the intention of recontextualizing his own work as well as offering low stakes exhibition opportunities for other artists. The ultimate goal of this show was to “meta-cize” the question “do you want to show in my gallery?” A rebuttal of sorts. If you’re looking for the art, asking yourself “wait, what am I supposed to be looking for?” Don’t look any further because it might not even exist. Or maybe it does but it remains in our minds, constantly bouncing back and fourth between two imagined spaces.
Or maybe its all in the emails!