Flag Poles, Conor Murphy - April 30 - June 4
The flag poles function as a reliable system of creativity. The series is something I can always return to in the studio that doesn't involve any guessing or imaginative labor. The process is super simple with minimal variables. I take a stick of wood, cut it, glue it back together and then paint it. The only decision making comes when choosing the length and angle to cut the segments. And the colors, of course. These decisions were initially made intuitively but after a few poles, a logic started to reveal itself. The angles can’t be overly obtuse or acute, they have to be just right. The lengths of the segments have to be perfectly proportionate to the width of the stock wood I find or purchase. The colors are chosen based on what paint is affordable and available at the hardware store, but the color combinations themselves take longer to reveal themselves. Some are painted and then repainted until the colors make sense together. Over time, the poles began to create themselves. I was able to become a mindless machine. They allow me to create the same thing over and over again without straying too far from the original system, which is a way for me to participate in a “craft.”
As more flag poles are made, an artistic lexiCON is divulged. The form and color combinations come together to create a coded language that only I, the artist, can identify and decode.
-Conor Murphy
