~LUKE MURPHY . . STUDIO VISIT
REV LUKE MURPHY – AT HIS STUDIO in HARLEM, NYC. SEPT 1, 2014.
LUKE MURPHY – MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
I’ve been wanting to visit LUKE MURPHY in his studio, ever since I first saw his work, cutting edge, power point chart presentations !! at CANADA, in 2000 – way back when the groundbreaking gallery was just a tiny sublet, under LEO KOENIG, who he himself was also renting from Pseudo.com, and it’s super-visionary, now bust leader: JOSH HARRIS – in a big ole building downtown at Broadway and Franklin. I was working for Josh as an artist ‘liaison, and although he, Josh, dealt with Leo personally, I was delegated to collect the rent from Canada – and, that’s how I first stumbled upon them. they were happy to just see a body – come through the door. and let me tell ya, Leo was no piece of cake either. the only way to access the fledgling CANADA was thru his gallery, and he wouldn’t let them be open on the nights when he held his openings, lest they spark some rival interest, among his own devotees.
LUKE MURPHY .. with one of his large, painted, very mysterious . . knowledge-spanning-in-code !! canvases in his studio.
so that’s about 14 years, that it took to get some free time from Luke, not that he wasn’t interested – he’s a big supporter of artlovers, from a tech angle – that’s his lukelab animated banner at the top of this page, but he’s a really busy guy, basically a (very cool) cat with 9 lives, but esp as a top tier code developer. he doesn’t like name-dropping, but how about . . web-founder of the MTV website, ditto Cartoon Network, and winner of a coveted webby for web design for Stephen Colbert’s show ?
among others .. !!
got the picture, yep, they don’t call him REV Luke .. for naught.
so when we say this guy is CGI . . it’s not bluffing.
see: Luke Murphy / lukelab.com
I really liked this one, because it was a weirdo ‘play’ on wood / woodsy pattern, wood paneling ? organics vs tech. with great voids and . . ‘drop-off’, and what ?
maybe word / thought bubbles – like in cartoons ?
a mind map . . that looked like it started life, in somebodies 1960s den . . !!
if I got it right, Luke says he starts off doodling or drawing, and then uploads that onto a computer and then uses the computer to cut out a patch – so that the image feels more ‘random’, as as opposed to a more obvious beginning and ending, human action.
well, we are all merging with our ‘devices’, and morphing into machines, more and more – everyday.
Losers !!
so: check !!
in Luke’s world vision, which gets pretty darn deep, agnostics, ancient libraries, many many god systems, cosmology, and etc. etc. – all universal code for us trying to understand what we are up against. let alone, where we come from . . . there is happy, sad, and . . random.
and this for example, looks to be . . sad.
and this is just: daydream .. gorgeous. painting.
it’s kind of an austere studio, a thinker’s place.
Luke’s studio is in the lower floor of his newly renovated brownstone, smack in the middle of a rapidly changing Harlem, there is even a sweet little backyard with garden just beyond.
I wonder if he and Gavin (Brown) ever passerby each other, on the street ?
Luke’s shaped canvas over the door . . . with scribbled notes, and signs. code. as to the marvels of the night sky, and mankind, no doubt.
back down to earth, the painter’s supplies. this has got to be the neatest studio I have ever been in. kind of arranged like you imagine a logic board to be, before the wires get all jangled up.
but that doesn’t mean, it’s not without – it’s eccentricities !!
likewise, c-u-r-i-o-u-s !!
Luke Murphy . . . exposed !!
aka the secret to the . . human condition & evolution & . . entropy.
I NEED 2 . . .
always make.
LUKE MURPHY – a bio landscape, and . . narrative.
or: behind the code, lies . . . us.
behind us, is the landscape. the world, the orb, the globe. with mountains.
wait, is that a self-portrait ?
a sad face with a painter’s palette, yeah, the way things are going – doesn’t look so good.
does it. wait til China corners the market on memory chips. flash forward: your lifetime, your LIBERTY, erased by a gesture, or worse a hidden snarl of ‘mean’ code – in a future vision gone bad.
can I be the only one – who sees a dark future catastrophe . . here ?
forget Iran and Nukes.
and. I thought Tsinghua was a . . beer ?
and, you thought art – was just for smiley faces !!
emoji code, and other . . new age short-cuts, for communication . . l-o-v-e-r-s.
PHOTOS: NANCY SMITH