The Riverbed, an exhibition by Ben Murphy focuses on the architecture and habitats of counter-cultural communities living in a remote mountainous area of south east Spain. The exhibition, which runs from 18 – 31 March and 19 April – 27 May 2017 at the Architectural Association Gallery in London, features 21 analogue prints and is accompanied by a new limited edition book.
Made over the course of ten years spent on extended field trips visiting these encampments, Murphy’s image series is a photographic record of the improvised living spaces of a diverse group of multi-national neo-nomadic outsiders who have migrated to the region by choice. Murphy’s photographs deliberately exclude inhabitants, making their presence felt through their absence and reflecting instead on the ways in which counter-cultural identities are manifested, maintained and reinforced through their makeshift dwellings. By training the lens of his 5×4 plate camera on customized trucks, vans, coaches and self-made structures, Murphy reveals the idiosyncrasies of these spaces, which reflect the anti-establishment beliefs of their inhabitants and challenge our perceptions of home.
Ben Murphy says: “Distinct tribal identities reimagined from the traditions of punk, hippy, rave, new traveler, anarchist and other marginalized subcultural groups, exist here in hard to find places; along the banks of an infertile riverbed, in ravines and off mountain passes, in relative proximity to each other and in continual states of flux. People who reject and subvert the conventions of a structured society from Europe, North and South America, Japan and elsewhere, gravitate to this area, making their temporal imprint on the land and local culture through the environments they stage and inhabit.
The intention of the work is to reflect contemporary counter-cultural identities through dwelling space. The work aims to consider values and expectations of home, society and notions of freedom, while drawing out some of the inevitable paradoxes, compromises and entanglements inherent in rejecting the dominant system when trying to live an alternative life on the margins of the mainstream”.
Ben Murphy’s work is represented in the collections of The Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Portrait Gallery and The Archive of Modern Conflict, among others. He was a recipient of the Graham Foundation Award in 2010 for his series ‘Homes of the American Dispossessed’ (AA Gallery 2011). His critically acclaimed monograph The U.N. Building was published by Thames and Hudson in 2005. He is represented by Steiglitz 19 Gallery, Antwerp, and is a contributor to international publications, including the Telegraph, Italian Vogue, Wallpaper and Nowness.
Ben Murphy, The Riverbed
18 – 31 March & 19 April – 27 May 2017
The Architectural Association
36 Bedford Square
Bloomsbury
London WC1B 3ES
United Kingdom
