MARK MURPHY : OUT OF TIME COLLAGE

Delving into the rich archives that have been collected by both the Living Memory and Made in Oldbury archive projects, collage artist and graphic designer Mark Murphy has created works that disrupt, combine or reimagine images from the area’s social and industrial past. The result is in nine, large format paste-up images positioned in and near the park, on walls and buildings including the beautiful, but derelict, ‘Enfield Room’ – the once long-time home of the town band.

Murphy explored the Langley area of Oldbury, taking inspiration from the clock tower that no longer works; and the faces that have stopped at three different times. Mark said: “The stopped clock led me to think about how photography freezes moments in time and how my collage practice uses disparate images that are moments from different eras that I combine to make work that exists in its own time.”

On Saturday 15 June, the images were lit at dusk to provide a guided trail through the park to the canal, along the tow path and under the bridge to the monumental Langley Maltings where a spectacular series of ten colour collages were projected across the water onto the facade of this four-storey building. After a week of torrential rain the event took place under clear skies with a nearly full moon and the still canal provided a perfect, glass like surface that reflected the projections.

Mark commented: “Working at this scale with these mediums was a new approach for me. Encouraged by Erik Kessels in a Multistory masterclass to ‘get out of my comfort zone’ I used my Blast commission as an opportunity to try new approaches and ways to show my collage work. I was inspired by the worldwide collage community, the
international street art scene (paste-ups and large scale murals), projection works by Krystof Wodizcko and the beauty and grandeur of
the built (sometimes derelict) environment and canals.”

Find out more here. Blast Photo Festival continues in Sandwell until the 29th June.

Images taken by David Rowan.