Interview with Adam Murray

What materials did you use in the first piece?

I used melted asphalt over a grid. The form resembles a Japanese space divider and the surface is reflective

I wanted to take a surface that you encounter everyday and make it something else. I am interested in gravity and the speed and constant flow of materials, particularly in how they are always moving.

I had been taking things in and reading about speed and culture and then I just got into the studio and started working.

What have you been working on recently?

The next pieces I have been working on involve halves of a mold of a boat. I had found the canoe and made a cast. I intended to pull the form out but the shell was more interesting.

I had outbursts of working and energy; I wasn’t necessarily working in a series. I’ve been working with found objects and then basing the sculptures on them.

How did you become interested in sculpture?

I had been studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design and working in house painting; I transferred to Mason Gross last year. I became interested in sculpture because I wanted to work in the real world, using the objects around me instead of with the confined but limitless field of the blank canvas in painting.

I’m interested in time and degradation, and the speeds of decay and of assembly, as well as ways of working that are sometimes compulsive and at other times methodical. I think an interesting piece is made with more than one of these languages. When you see a carefully crafted object you can see the amount of time that is involved in it and when you see pieces that find ways of putting found objects together you can see the speed and physical energy involved. Varying forms, images, and languages can all be implemented within the same work.

Which sculptors and artists are you interested in?

I am interested in Brancusi and his stacking, Rodin, Al Taylor, Martin Kippenberger, and Robert Rauschenberg. I’m also interested in Carol Bove and the way she assembles and shows both found and precious objects.

What studio classes have you taken in other mediums?

I have taken video classes.

What are your plans going forward/ how do you plan to continue working with sculpture?

I like to always stay working and be in a mode of productivity. I plan on attending an MFA program in California.