Tonight at American Medium in Bed-Stuy, there will be a launch party for Domain~Lattice, the first full-length color monograph by the Portland artist and musician Brenna Murphy, published jointly by the New York publisher Pleasure Editions and the Brooklyn design studio Cameron + Brown.
“The book is an illuminated manuscript/alien yearbook/personal daily planner,” Murphy told ARTnews over email. “I designed it page by page, treating it as a repository for all the material that I generated July-Sept of this yr. It functioned as a framework for me to organize my flow of imagery into a kind of informational layout,” she continued.
Murphy—who has shown in the past at American Medium—uses digital imaging alongside collaged photography and drawings to render virtual as well as physical objects and spaces. These manifest themselves in two- and three-dimensional prints and objects. Sometimes, they deploy the use of 3-D printers and materials like plexiglass, medium-density fiberboard, and Hahnmuhle Rag Satin Paper. They are at once ornate and psychedelic, glossy and ancient.
“My workflow revolves around a daily practice of visual jamming. So an important aspect is designing functional frameworks to house the flow of imagery,” Murphy explained. “The book was a great method. I also have an ongoing project called Labyrinths that is a frequently updated series of linked Web pages that present talismanic arrangements of my images/videos/sounds.”
More on the “sounds” side of things: Murphy’s band MSHR will be performing a set in what she calls the “backyard jungle” of American Medium. The band is a duo comprising Murphy and the artist and musician Birch Cooper, and their performances are centered around what Murphy calls “an array of sculptural analog synthesizes that we designed and built. It’s a kind of macro scale computer chip that we perform a ceremony inside to contact the virtual.”
MSHR performs at 8 p.m. Additionally, the launch will feature a DJ set from Debbie DJs Dallas, a member of the unclassifiable experimental music trio Yellow Tears. Free posters from the book will also be available. Watch a preview video made by Murphy below.