Dan's Papers - February 22, 2008 - Honoring the Artist: Michael Tyson Murphy

One can say without hesitation that Michael Tyson Murphy possesses myriad talents covering the fine arts world at large, from creating paintings, drawings and digital prints to critical writing about cinema. One can also say that Murphy covers the aesthetic "waterfront," ranging from words to images.

The word-image opposition apparent in Murphy's professional pursuits also shows up in other contradictory ways. For example, he was raised in Southern California and educated at San Francisco Art Institute, but he now lives and works in New York City. Yet a penchant for opposites extends as well to Murphy's philosophy about aesthetics.

Q: How does your idea of opposites relate to your work?

A: For example, when I depict figure and ground, there can be a flip. You look again, and the figure is now the ground. In other words, it may appear as a figure, then it's ground. Actually, in physics, space is all there is. What we see as "things" are really folded into space. Opposites draw themselves to each other. Things find themselves in balance.

Q: How does this idea relate to your theories about moving images, film? I know you have written an intriguing critical article about Last Year at Marienbad.

A: I wrote about the psychological dynamics that are displayed within the film's image narrative. As a two-dimensional story, space plays an essential part. The narrative is really a game board; the characters are markers in the game; they are two-dimensional as well. The characters are not willing to admit who they are and where they came from.

Q: I think what you're also saying is the people can't connect to each other; I found that true in the director's last film, Private Fears in Public Places. The title suggests space too, and so does the film's use of composition. But besides film, how else would you apply this use of opposition and space to other art forms? Or to art in general?

A: I'm visually-oriented, so I can apply it to theatre and architecture. Art, generally, is a mediator. It gives reality a dimension. Getting back to figure and ground, these two aspects are shifting; a "trickster" leads you in under one pretense and then changes.

Q: How else, in specific ways, do you balance discordant elements?

A: I like complementary colors to get brashness, like orange and blue, and I try to make it look like there's no opposition.

Q: What are you doing now that reinforces or contradicts this notion?

A: I won't go back to realistic images. I'm looking for new ways of considering new oppositions. I'm focused on the point where contradiction interacts; they are not separate.

Q: Your cover this week looks realistic.

A: Look at it again. It's a still life, but it's not a painting of a real thing. It's from my imagination, with multiple perspectives. It's a reproduction, not the actual image.