Artifacts
Exhibition essay for Caitlyn Murphy
Dianna Witte Gallery, 2023
Artifacts is a series of paintings that began in October 2021 when Murphy first walked by the same St. Clair West junk shop I did. She began documenting the scenes she saw through the powdery front window and was drawn to particular colours and shades. Murphy appreciates objects that require technical accuracy to depict their material; layers of glass and translucent items tightly packed alongside porcelain and paper call for patience from viewers to decipher. In this way, Artifacts is an exercise in slowing down. Murphy’s series of paintings demand intentional looking, asking the viewer to first hold onto the entire canvas at once, and then pull apart each detail – a completed jigsaw puzzle in reverse, where the image becomes clearer once separated into smaller pieces.
Full exhibition text via Dianna Witte Gallery