ANNE MURRAY
  • Home
  • Being Non Human
    • d'aquarium
    • One Swan's Way and Without Ceremony
    • Fata Morgana
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 1(The Birth of a Leaf)
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 2 (The Birth of a Leaf)
    • Symphonies in Hair
  • Being Human
    • L'Artiste Naufragée
    • Their/Him/Hope/Her
    • Fear
    • Boundaries
    • Gaslighting
    • Anna Greki's Room
    • Blind Ambition
  • Writing
    • Critical Writing
    • Medusa's Mirror
    • Unco Guid
    • Poetry
    • Silence- the novel
  • Contact /Bio
    • Press
    • News
  • Curatorial
  • Home
  • Being Non Human
    • d'aquarium
    • One Swan's Way and Without Ceremony
    • Fata Morgana
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 1(The Birth of a Leaf)
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 2 (The Birth of a Leaf)
    • Symphonies in Hair
  • Being Human
    • L'Artiste Naufragée
    • Their/Him/Hope/Her
    • Fear
    • Boundaries
    • Gaslighting
    • Anna Greki's Room
    • Blind Ambition
  • Writing
    • Critical Writing
    • Medusa's Mirror
    • Unco Guid
    • Poetry
    • Silence- the novel
  • Contact /Bio
    • Press
    • News
  • Curatorial
Artist

Anna Greki Installation video from Anne Murray on Vimeo.

This installation was first created at Les Ateliers Sauvages in Algiers, Algeria, thanks to Wassyla Tamzali. Walk around the installation by watching the video above. 
​Fascinated by the fact that Anna Greki wrote the entire book of poems, Algerie Capitale Alger, while incarcerated in Serkadji prison in Algiers, I decided to research the idea of creation in isolation. I explored the items in my room at Les Ateliers Sauvages, while I was a resident there. I stared at the Venetian blinds day after day and began to film them. Then I stared at the light, I noticed how it looked like an eye when I closed the aperture of the camera more and more. An eye that was always watching, the light that burned the insects, small harmless beings within it.

​​

Anna Greki's Room from Anne Murray on Vimeo.

I placed the cloth, a veil, around the space, both a protection and a sign of the hidden nature of things underneath our skin, our human foibles. I had been taking many photos of these draperies on the buildings in Algiers where there was so much renovation going on, while considering Anna Greki describing the city as Alger la blanche. For me the white was the drapery which protected us all from the dust of the restorations, of the perpetual process of renewal of this city. I placed several standing lamps to illuminate the space, to make it brighter than bright almost painful to see. The lights made the room hot and referenced a form of torture with light, for me a reference to the torture that Anna Greki had experienced while in prison.  The light also created beautiful shadows like I had seen on the buildings in Algiers in the afternoon, a beautiful symphony of light and shadow, regardless of what was underneath this bridal veil.

Poetry and Anna Greki 720p from Anne Murray on Vimeo.

A video collection of interviews including the poet Abderrahmane Djelfaoui,
the poet and translator Lamis Saidi, and the photographer Imene Nesrine Kerdel.
I included sound Installations with the voice of Abderrahmane Djelfaoui and my  
​own voice reading my poems inspired by Anna Greki and the city of Algiers.
You could listen to the voices on an mp3 player while looking at a photo of
​the white fabric on a building near Les Ateliers Sauvages. ​Listen here to poet and author of Anna Greki: Les Mots D'Amour, Les Mots De Guerre, Abderrahmane Djelfaoui, speaking about Anna Greki and all the names by which she was known. : soundcloud.com/annemurrayartist/abderrahmane-1
​
​​Take your time
Listen here: ​soundcloud.com/annemurrayartist/take-your-time-by-anne-murray
 
Take your time, you will need it
When the last breath comes, take it slowly
A memory of torture as it feeds on itself
 
Take your time, you are going to need it
When they come for you in the street, the bullies
And the bravards, one in the same
 
Take your time, you will miss it
To weep in the night as you long for a future
Too far to glimpse
 
Take your time, it will measure
How it all ends up, how fast or slow
You find the path
 
Take your time, as you walk
They will judge you
As you judge yourself
 
Take your time, to think it over
To make these choices
For they are not only for yourself.

​by Anne Murray

​Alger
Listen here:  soundcloud.com/annemurrayartist/alger-by-anne-murray
​

The further I travel away, the closer I am
To what is true within me.
Arms enfolding in a twisting motion
It is no good to try to hug myself.
My strength must come from something
on the outside working inward
drilling its way to a center
where matter appears meaningless,
but for each small effort.
 
The casualties of daily struggles lie strewn
in myriad patterns
where I stopped participating
and my shadow slipped as silence
into water.
A nightfall at midday, an eclipse of self, a halo
just bright enough to trace its shape,
it is a promise to myself that I would
let go of everything
for something,
not anticipated but divined.
 
In the streets I hear them, the small cries
first starlings
and then the birds of prey,
a predatory predilection
would banish me to life without,
while inside a fire still burns.
 
The consummation of myself
Ashes from which I draw a new spirit
An awkwardness of being
An animal limb upon limb
Would harm itself on its own shell.
 
The broken patterns of debris,
An embryonic detritus,
No one but me would touch,
My hand as on a baby’s head,
Explores its texture with a
Thoughtful tenderness
Gaining ground, I rise from steps
And the stench of  human fluids,
not meant to be shared
make me cautious of my clothes. 
Here I have transgressed a social context
of unintended impact,
a woman asks from her window
for me to come inside
but I smile and allow myself the opportunity
only in my mind.
 
by Anne Murray
Date
Listen here: soundcloud.com/annemurrayartist/date-by-anne-murray
​

The pit of the date emerges from my mouth.
My tongue and teeth working in a fine motion,
Not even the smallest morsel of flesh remains
A clean birth of the future fruit from which, I,
Might once again,
be nourished.
 
Bittersweet scent of citrus,
Fingertips as I touch my face
In an absent gesture
I reflect upon
its source, the orange,
an emissary from the sun.
 
How will you know me,
When I am gone?
the peel of this orange
a delicate scent that will not endure
or the date
which emerges
from the embrace of
verdant arms
as fruit
on your tongue?
 
Words of others
Would witness my presence
Shadows of whom
I might have been
or once was
 
an emptiness present only
because they remember
moments shared
with me.
will you search for my existence,
for evidence of things
you might have asked
before?
 
Echos of thoughts, rebounding
From across waves of time
We exist in the memories of others
In our exchange
I know I am here only because
You are.
 
By Anne Murray
 
 
 

Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Being Non Human
    • d'aquarium
    • One Swan's Way and Without Ceremony
    • Fata Morgana
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 1(The Birth of a Leaf)
    • La Naissance d'une Feuille series 2 (The Birth of a Leaf)
    • Symphonies in Hair
  • Being Human
    • L'Artiste Naufragée
    • Their/Him/Hope/Her
    • Fear
    • Boundaries
    • Gaslighting
    • Anna Greki's Room
    • Blind Ambition
  • Writing
    • Critical Writing
    • Medusa's Mirror
    • Unco Guid
    • Poetry
    • Silence- the novel
  • Contact /Bio
    • Press
    • News
  • Curatorial