‘Gratuitous Cocking’ is an exhibition in the making since 2008. It follows on ‘Karaoke Confessions’ in 2007. Antoinette Murdoch has been employed at the Johannesburg Art Gallery since 2009 and completed her MAFA in 2010. Under challenging circumstances, her studio shrunk to a small, dedicated area in the townhouse that she shares with her teenaged daughters. Time and space moved her focus from three-dimensional to two-dimensional work.
“Cocking” makes reference to the clicking sound that a gun makes when the hammer is being pulled back. Hollywood makes us believe that cocking is necessary and is the dramatic prediction of a shot. On the contrary, it is unnecessary and a myth. This is referred to as “gratuitous cocking”. The cocking of most weapons has been obsolete for about 150 years.
‘Gratuitous Cocking’ can be loosely translated as unnecessary drama. Due to emotional ups and downs, Murdoch’s life is by no means devoid of drama and sometimes that drama is emphasised in her crazy daily existence, starting and ending with a pathway strewn with minibus taxis. Puzzling requests, accusations and criticism fill the majority of her days and then she returns home to maintenance fights.
She acknowledges her life-affirming children and family who form part of her “white privileged” life and states the above not as complaints, but to describe her personal drama in reference to this exhibition.
As explained through the titles of the works, individual pieces are simple and straightforward. In ‘Karaoke Confessions’, the issues of love and indifference were thoroughly explored and these topics were carried over in the artwork with a collection of “I love” stickers. This work took many years to complete as Murdoch’s travel itinerary is not vast. She relied on her family and, particularly, her sister’s gathering of this worldwide collection of “I love” stickers; the collection is void of some “third world” countries as they are not readily available in this part of the world.
The abovementioned work is the catalyst for the rest of the exhibition, which explodes onto A2, A1 and A0 pieces of regular Fabriano paper, as well as some potato sacks. The application of mainly pastel and paint is enhanced by pen drawings and found objects. Bedazzled objects emphasise the unnecessary drama of regular daily events. Murdoch feels free to introduce emotional mark-making in these multimedia works. These are her most expressive works to date.
The works further explore her single life, pop culture (specifically Facebook and Hollywood movies), childhood and those closest to her.
• “In the meanwhile, I intend to scream, race the engine, call when I feel like it, throw tantrums in Bloomingdale’s if I feel like it and confess intimate details about my life to complete strangers. I intend to do what I want to do and be whom I want to be and answer only to myself: that is, quite simply, the bitch philosophy,…” (Wurtzel. E. (1998). Bitch)

Opening : 28 January 2016 6:00 pm

mpefm SOUTH AFRICA art press release