What We Loved and Forgot is a photography and video installation exhibition by the American artists. In the installation 3 lily structures fill the gallery space, creating an alcove that the audience can enter like a bower inside a thicket of flowers. Within the lily structure is a video in which a man rises out of an armchair and walks up a ramp and disappears off-screen while performers are building these lilies.
Qbox gallery is pleased to present What We Loved and Forgot, a
photography and video installation exhibition by the American artists
Megan and Murray McMillan in their second solo exhibition at the
gallery.
In early 2009, Megan and Murray McMillan answered an advertisement for
a large assortment of yellow plastic used for cable management
infrastructure for the industrial building construction. The person
was offering the material for free to whoever could collect it. They
met with the advertiser, who had been recently widowed and found out
that the plastic had left over from her late husband’s business. Her
only request was that they use the material to make something
beautiful. That experience created the basis of the structure the
artists ultimately made from the material: a type of flower called day
lilies, which bloom at sunrise and wither at sunset. These lilies
reminded the artists of the passage in One Hundred Years of Solitude,
where yellow flowers rain down and blanket the town after José Arcadio
Buendía’s death.
In the installation What We Loved and Forgot, three lily structures
fill the gallery space, creating an alcove that the audience can enter
like a bower inside a thicket of flowers. Within the lily structure is
a video in which a man rises out of an armchair and walks up a ramp
and disappears off-screen while performers are building these lilies.
In the kitchen, a woman is cooking, unaware of the dream world around
her.
Megan and Murray McMillan are video, photography and installation
artists who have been collaborating since 2002. They have exhibited
nationally and internationally including the National Museum of Art in
La Paz, Bolivia, and the State Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece,
where they participated in the 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale. They have
been artists in residence in Barcelona, Athens, Turku and Kokar,
Finland. In 2007, they were in film festivals in Austria, Croatia,
Romania, Switzerland, London and Los Angeles and participated in the
10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007) in Turkey. Their solo show
at White Flag Projects in St Louis was reviewed in the Nov 2007 issue
of Art in America.
Megan McMillan (born 1975, USA) completed post-graduate work in Art
History and Critical Theory at California State University Long Beach.
Murray McMillan (born 1973, USA) has an MFA in Transmedia from The
University of Texas at Austin and a BFA from Kansas City Art
Institute. Murray is currently an assistant professor at Roger
Williams University. The McMillans have been married since 1997 and
live and work in Providence, Rhode Island.
Preview Saturday, 20 March, 7-10 pm
Qbox gallery
10, Armodiou Str., 10552 Athens
Opening hours: Tuesday - Friday 14 - 20
Saturday 12 - 16 or by appointment
free admission