murray gaylard

THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME (OR AT LEAST SOME PLACE THAT RESEMBLES IT):

PART 1

Katalog2 01.09.2008 23:58 Uhr Seite 1

DIARY EXCERPT:26.07.08

„There’s no place like home (or at least a place thatresembles it)“ is a piece which tries to re-examine whathome is, and the extent to which our own identities arebound to the idea of it, from various vantage points.Certainly it is not the same as it was 50 years ago. In aworld that lives in transit, refugee camps, airportlounges, in exile, and where cellular communication and hotspots enable us to position our “private” directly into thepublic, home is perhaps only the psychological space thatwe carry with us wherever we go, between the place we areleaving and the place we are going. Can we ever leave homebehind and how much of it do we carry with us in a kind ofparasitical relationship, wherever we go

Even our architecture mimics the form of our belongingsinstead of our own human forms. Corners have been fascina-ting me a lot lately. I’ve been spending time in them, clut-tering stuff in them to make them go away, trying to under-stand the point of their existence. It would seem as if thespaces in which we live are designed less for our own psy-chological comfort and totally for the most economical useof space. I think it was Koolhaas who said that if clothingis our second skin, then architecture must be our thirdskin. And Jean-Paul Sartre once said something like “thebomb that destroys my house also destroys my body, insofaras my house was already an indication of my body”. And sothe question arises as to whether home is something physi-cal or psychological.?

Why a performance with Mickey Mouse? Because Mickey Mouseis a character that so clearly belongs anywhere else BUT onthe street. Literally drawn into his surroundings, Mickeyis dependent on this squeaky clean perfection of a world,where he feels king and can operate within the clearly-defined parametres of what he represents in this place offantasy – in a cocoon of absolute safety and acceptance.Displacing him is a strong metaphor for what happens (bothsocially and aesthetically) when an individual is uprootedand planted in unfamiliar terrain… I asked myself the que-stion, if Mickey Mouse had to leave home, where would hego? What would be a viable alternative? And one city cameto mind – Venice. Venice has all the qualities of an amu-sement park – an almost non-existent crime rate, no carsand millions of tourists.


Surely Mickey Mouse would be able to find a sense of com-fort in reaching Venice after spending time in reality? Andso it is my plan to travel (by train, car, foot, plane, wha-tever) to Venice, in a home-made Mickey Mouse costume. I’mnot sure how the public will respond to me – aggressively,with humour, with fascination – but I am sure that my fee-ling of being “in the wrong place” will be very strong andthat my journey to Venice will be filled with adventure!!!

Spoke to Elke Grün from the Kunstverein in Wiesbaden onFriday and was struck by the fact that this is not my firstattempt to address the idea of home and private space. Mydoormats were the first attempt to draw attention to thedifference between what’s behind the door and what liesbeyond it. The space creator performance took the idea ofprivate space even further. Of course it makes me wonder towhich extent I will keep coming back to this topic and whyI am so fascinated by it.

The drawings for the Schwäbisch Hall show seem to distortmy idea of what home is totally. And here I have to thinkof the words of Elaine Scarry “the unmaking of civilisati-on inevitably requires a return to and mutilation of thedomestic, the ground of all making.”. My drawings for theshow were all inspired by the little thumbnails that appe-ar in a google search upon entering the word “home” or“domestic”. Every little block, dot, cutting and person istaken from what was offered to me in the internet. By jumb-ling everything up and glueing it all back together, the-reby creating an aesthetic dimension of domesticity thatseems to have no reference to “home” whatsoever, perhapsthese drawings represent a kind of formal mutilation of thedomestic and of what “home” really looks like.

Murray Gaylard


Diese Publikation erscheint zur Ausstellung von MurrayGaylard vom 12.09.2008 - 24.10.2008 in den Räumen dervondoering contemporary.Diese Ausstellung wird gefördert durch die Helvetia Wealth AG, Feldeggstr. 29, Zürich.www.helvetia-wealth.chTelefon: 0041-(0)44-567 2222

Herausgeber: vondoering contemporary, Im Lindach 1, D-74523 SchwäbischHall,Deutschland, www.vondoering.de, Telefon: 0049-(0)791-941 3456Leiter: Felix von DöringTexte: Murray GaylardRedaktion, Fotografien, Graphische Gestaltung:Felix von Döring, Murray GaylardHerstellung:StieberDruck, LaudaCopyright bei Murray Gaylard, vondoering contemporaryCourtesy: vondoering contemporary

Murray Gaylard

geboren 1974 in Queenstown, Südafrika,lebt und arbeitet in Frankfurt am Main.

Alle Arbeiten sind ohne Titel.


MURRAYGAYLARD


murray gaylard

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