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1/4/2004

Paul Murphy

Transition Gallery, London

APU150

APU150 consists of 150 drawings of Apu, the shop-keeper from the cartoon series, The Simpsons. The project draws on Murphy's own experiences of being from an Asian and white mixed race background. The APU150 project presents Murphy's personal narrative as an alternative to the mainstream media narratives (fictional and otherwise) around his ethnicity from the present and the past. Murphy says that 'It's based on the idea of visual omissions and categorisations and the idea that the things we omit and deny are often more revealing than the things we will admit to as are the way we choose to categorise the things around us and our experiences.' On a crude level APU150 is simply 150 ticks in the 'Any Other Asian Background' box on an ethnic monitoring form, looking to swamp the dominant representations as they already exist through sheer weight of numbers and repetition. The drawings utilise a variety of found, recycled and reclaimed media. The palette of much of the work, taken from discarded pots of paint, is based on the colours that we use to describe (and categorise) skin colours ('black', 'white', 'yellow' and so on) but in their garishness bear no relationship to what a pure skin colour might actually be. On another level, in its repetition, while the audience is invited to humanise the character, to see past his superficial defining characteristics of his ethnicity and his job, this isn't a soft-focus portrait of the 'nice-guy Asian'. As the series of pictures develops, a decidedly darker portrait emerges.

Private View Friday 2 April 6-9pm

Transition
110a Lauriston Road London E9

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