Condiciones aún por titular [Conditions yet not known]

Overview

In both his work and practice, Oscar Murillo has sought to account for the position of body and being within increasingly impersonal circuits of production, consumption, confinement and cultural hegemony. Previous projects have inspired lasting artistic collaborations with, for example, a community of skilled workers in the town of Sheki, Azerbaijan, a historic and once-prosperous centre of silk production that has been in decline since post-Soviet privatisation.

Condiciones aún por titular [Conditions yet not known] (2014–17), a site-specific installation occupying the open courtyard and two corridors of Bait Al Serkal, is an absurd and silent anti-monument, in which the idea of a finished work becomes inseparable from process and material. Featuring hundreds of paintings and steel structures inspired by morgue tables, the installation comprises unique canvases that have been covered with several layers of paint on both sides and displayed throughout the courtyard. Some of the paintings have been cut into strips and then sewn together so that they can be presented in a unique pattern; others bear evidence of previous use as oil pads in the studio. Alternating sheer and opaque surfaces distinguish newer canvases from older ones, and the lingering smell of paint offers a sense of the ongoing process of production—punctuating the concept of rebirth.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 13.