Ian Murray
Towards a Northern Service: Criminal Code 1976/78
Tutorial 1978/80
Darkroom and reception area; six channels of audio playback through five customized speakers and intercom; 12"bell; buzzer; eight signs; one desk sign; three signs stands; two speakers stands; intercom; two custom metronomes; custom glass table;two chairs; two customized lamps; custom Letraset; custom electonice units.
IM's Tutorial presents a situation of physical dislocation for the viewer, a space that denies the possibility of any perception crutch or external reference. To walk, or more appropriately stumble, into Tutorial is to enter into a black hole where the only references are after-images of object, place, sound and meaning. We see, or believe we "see", a black table in a black room. There is text and an open book on the table, illuminated solely by a flickering desk lamp. On the audio track we hear a student attempting to read a text that unravels as an apparent statement of fact(s) from a Third World perspective. The irony of this work is that the "Third world" issue isactually located in the context of a minority situation within a dominant socio-political system: the Inuit people in Canada. Tutorial is more than an expression of cultural difference (and ultimately political disenfranchisement), it is an interrogation. The viewer is placed in the situation of receiving information from an unseen narrator without the comfort of responding (apologizing?) directly. (the second part of the installation presents a man sitting at a table, like an office reception, with on the table telephone, lamp desk, and a (pendule derrière l'homme, l'accès est balisé par deux haies de cordon de protection de musée).
IM is a multimedia artist whose work often involves the use of spaces, electronics and mass-media. Murray has worked with audio since 1969, including radio, records, audio tapes and telephone. His non-radio work since 1974 has most often combined audio with other installation elements. Lives in Toronto.
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