Dujourie Espaliu

Through the curator’s very particular choice of works, this exhibition asserts the importance of work in which meaning is not immediately revealed, and requires time to be absorbed. The selected work counteracts the 'noisier', theatrical tendencies that characterizes much contemporary art.

The exhibition displays continuity between the three artists’ practice and Murphy’s own work as an artist. The show consists primarily of the juxtapositions of materials, text, images and notions from different sources, in order to engender new possible meanings. The space between the works, and also the space between the viewer and the object is, according to Murphy, where quiet and transformative reflection took place.

Belgian Lili Dujourie’s work carries a sense of melancholy. It communicates feelings of loss and longing through an aesthetic that springs from the Flemish tradition of Rubens and Vermeer. The work encourages the viewer’s introspection by the use of closed interiors, fractured pictorial spaces and titles which often emphasise the sense of something 'held back.’

The work of Spaniard Pepe Espaliu, who died in 1993, conveys a similar absence and emptiness: cages and shells containing nothing and objects concealing what they may contain. The overall effect of Espaliu’s work could be seen as one of poignant obscurity, as nothing seems to function or fit in a familiar way.

Cristina Iglesias’ work is concerned with the structure and decoration of architecture, which reflects and determines human behaviour. Her sculptures are inviting and yet frustrating; her work contains passages that suggest human proportions, but are too narrow to enter. The physicality of the architectural detail and space of Iglesias’ works encourages the viewer to explore their relationship with interior and exterior space, and yet through their strongly evocative qualities, are made aware of their vanity and vulnerability.

Dujourie Espaliu
Kurator: John Murphy

Künstler: Lili Dujourie, Pepe Espaliu, Cristina Iglesias