Dear Murray
2013
Installation (written correspondence, postcards, photographs, collage, sound recording)Dimensions variable
I created Dear Murray for the exhibition “TAGTEAM”, which was produced for Gay Premises: Radical Voices in the Archives, 1973-1983 at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive (CLGA). It is a correspondence project for my deceased friend Dr. Murray Wilson, whose accession of journals, correspondence and drawings now form part of the CLGA. The project references the book Dear M, a compilation of letters that prominent Yorkville art dealer Jack Pollock wrote to his then anonymous psychiatrist, “M”, a moniker for Murray. In my project, Murray’s anonymity is lost and our friendship becomes a personal setting through which to publicly explore ideas of influence and absence. In the exhibition, my correspondence was displayed along with images from the Undesire series of digital collages, a compilation of emails sent between myself and Murray at the beginning of our friendship, and a ten-minute audio recording. The project can be accessed in perpetuity at the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archive.
