Mark
murphy

ABOUT COMMISSION

Out of Time

Mark Murphy has been exploring the Langley area of Oldbury, in particular Lodge Park. Standing at the entrance of the park within Langley Lodge is a clock tower that no longer works, the faces of the clock having stopped at three different times. Working with collage, Mark found this a fascinating starting point, posing the question that if photographs are a moment of time, frozen, collages work with multiple and disparate moments, different pieces of time, combining them in previously unseen ways to create new meanings, new ideas, new stories and this is what drives this work.

Mark has been delving into the rich archives that have been amassed by both the Living Memory and Made in Oldbury archive projects, to create new collage / cut outs / paste-ups that will create a trail around the park.

This commission is part of the Forge Artist Open Call Programme which invited 12 West Midlands artists and/or curators to make new bodies of work for the Blast! Festival and take part in a mentorship programme.  

Thanks to Living Memory and Made in Oldbury for their support and access to the archives.

ARTIST BIO

Mark Murphy is an independent graphic designer, artist and musician. During the past eight years, Mark has enjoyed setting himself the challenge of making collage in a purely analogue way. Seeking out weird and wonderful print from the last 60 years his hand-cut, paper collages play with graphic composition, juxtaposition, space, scale and surrealism. Sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative, often humorous. 

Mark has exhibited across the UK and featured in collective shows in Edinburgh, Dublin, Berlin and New York. He works from a shared studio space in South West Birmingham.