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Zora J Murff
American Mother, 2019
Pigment print
60 x 75 inches
© Zora J Murff / Webber Gallery

Zora J Murff »

We Here For Some Jive Conspiracy

19 February - 31 March 2023

Private View: Saturday, 18 February, 6-9pm
Artist Talk: Sunday, 19 February, 2pm

WEBBER

939 S Santa Fe Ave, Los Angeles
info@webber.gallery
www.webber.gallery
Wed – Sat, 11am – 5pm (by appointment only)

Zora J Murff
Garden with Fruit, 2020
Pigment print
15 x 20 inches
© Zora J Murff / Webber Gallery

"We Here For Some Jive Conspiracy" is the title of Webber's inaugural LA exhibition by American artist Zora J Murff. Murff's practice is consistent in its fierce and open questioning of racial and cultural constructs – this specific iteration of works being geared toward the histories and social climate of Los Angeles. This is not the first time the artist has chosen to focus on one place in order to detail a more expansive case-study of America's complex and deep racial history - photographed in Omaha, Nebraska, At No Point In Between (2021) exists as a photographic study of a Black community which has been shaped by a legacy of injustice and oppression.

Here in this LA installation, Murff continues to utilise photography's objective power alongside our faith in the image to probe our existing relationships with racial indifferences, whilst weaving in an array of historical documents alongside a growing archive of memes, online social phenomena, and pop culture references.

This amalgamation of materials, time and information comes together through a collaging of the gallery walls and floor in homage to fly-postering as a means of direct, provocative communication. The piece White Girl is comprised of a long repeating series of the famous image of OJ Simpson's white Bronco being driven down Interstate 405 in 1994, both the scene and the individual now serving as an emblem of LA's racial and fanatical character.

An arguably intrinsic link exists between the televised courtroom trial and the Rodney King riots that took place just a few years prior, with Murff reproducing the images of Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck and assaulted at a large and unavoidable scale in the gallery. The artist delves further back in to the history of LA, police misconduct and class divisions with a piece titled Bobby said blow the Pigs away (rearranging the social order), an imposing 7 panel installation depicting Black Panthers founder Bobby Seale delivering a speech during the Watts riots in 1965. Within these pieces the viewer is confronted with the subjection of oppression and violence but also the strength and resilience of communities and individuals in the face of prejudices.

Zora J Murff
Hit-a-lick (I’m coming baby send the address), 2019
Pigment print
12 x 15 inches
© Zora J Murff / Webber Gallery

Kanye West appears in the artist's work for the first time here too, both as an individual and an unavoidably controversial social phenomenon. Murff is keen to remain open in his dialogue, eager to probe how and why cancel culture exists amongst us and how it manifests. A polarising contrast exists between two particular works in the exhibition - a large photographic reproduction of Kanye West wearing a White Lives Matter shirt, and an exhibited editioned shirt designed by Murff himself depicting and revisiting Percy Lee Atkins, a man jailed for fashioning and wearing a shirt reading 'Freedom Now' to a protest.

Murff continues to push in to a multitude of mediums and histories to not only draw comparisons but to search for a greater understanding and to contest larger systems of oppression at play; white supremacy, patriarchy and capitalism. A statement from the artist on this installation reads as follows; "We have the power to transcend divisions and to free Ourselves and others, but liberation necessitates action over sentiment. What can you find here past cultural entertainment? What messages do you take from what you see? This is a confrontation."

Zora J Murff (born in Des Moines, Iowa, 1987) is an artist and educator living in Northwest Arkansas. In 2019, Murff was named an Aperture Portfolio Prize finalist, a PDN 30 honoree, and a Light Work Artist-in-Residence; he was one of eight artists chosen for the most recent iteration of the Museum of Modern Art's New Photography series, Companion Pieces: New Photography 2020. He has recently been announced as a recipient of the 2023 ICP Infinity Award. Murff's books include Corrections (2015); LOST, Omaha (2018); and At No Point In Between (2019). His work was presented at the 2021 Rencontres d'Arles, France, as part of the Louis Roederer Discovery Award and his works are housed in many notable US institutions and collections including, Studio Museum, SFMOMA, LACMA, MoMA, High Museum, Denver Art Museum and the MoCP.

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