Ethan Murrow
« El arte es una mentira que nos acerca a la verdad. »
Pablo Picasso
Hoaxers and hucksters, obsessives, fake scientists, doomed explorers, pathetic inventors, liars, a make-believe whale, and two goats : these are the creatures of Ethan Murrow’s worlds.
Here are the mises en scene : waterside exploration with undefined, antiquated scientific equipment ; Victorian American aviation inventors with personalized jet packs ; early twentieth century marine biologists with fake meters and projectors ; and barefoot miners hawking dust, holding umbrellas, and leashed to women on tricycles.
The gestalt of Murrow’s work, hidden in the fakery and malfunction of his subjects, is a truth about America. An honesty so veracious it can only be carried by the fictional accounts documented in Murrow’s videos and drawings.
Murrow is the grandson of pioneer broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow and though the man passed away nearly a decade before his grandson’s birth, Edward’s life hangs over Ethan the way notoriety often lingers over its descendents. Ethan says he finds himself « weirdly curious ; attracted and confused all at once » by his grandfather. And like many children or grandchildren of successful, famous people, a tension exists between being one’s own person and living up to the family name ; between trading on the accomplishments of one’s forefathers or forging one’s own path. Along with this tension, Ethan inherited his grandfather’s inquisitiveness about America ans a strong need to tell the truth.
The truth Murrow is attempting to share with us is buried in the collective of fictions that make up his work. As the viewer, he must become one of his intrepid explorers to find it. Here are some tools.
Murrow’s video works are elaborate recreations of narratives about characters, times, and places he makes up. He took an interest in performance and video work after a residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Nebraska in 2004. « Doomed Explorers » was is foray into the medium. Collaborating with his wife, Vita Weinstein Murrow, who shot the video and stills, Murrow scouted a location in the Pacific Northwest, created a variety of props and costumes, and defined the storyline.
Murrow appears in his videos and in doing so identifies himself with the flawed characters. The performance of the video is child-like play – fanciful dress-up and purposeless action – that is to say it is an excuse for the artist to be silly. « Doomed Explorers » is not silly, however, but a rather serious exploration of obsession and struggle. As an act of portraiture, it is a an indictment of the artist’s flaws and fears of failure. As an act of social commentary, it is both cutting and compassionate.
The drawings are based on phatographs and stills from his video and performance work. They are photorealist : Not recreations of the events, rather the renderings of images of the events in graphite. The perspective of « John McCarty, promoter of the mines and professional middleman, » for example, is that of a camera shot from above. The drawing retains the flattening effect of photography, an effect that highlights, certain details : the sheen on the gauge, the man’s veiny hands, or the wrinkly texture of the currency.
As a culture, we experience ourselves through photography-based media. « Dust Miners, » like the rest of Murrow’s work, trades on nostalgia. The characters reference 19th century gold rushers whom we have only visually experienced through photography that is stoic, posed, and direct. Murrow’s use of photorealism has the effect of bringing these moments closer to us. In short, he makes the unreal more real.
Murrow’s subjects come from a fascination with American mythology and that part of our national identity where we are pioneers, explorers, and inventors. « Pinto Brothers » tells the story of two early aviators attempting to launch and land using a personalized jet propulsion system. Murrow could have chosen to base the story in that of Lagari Hasan Celebi, a 17th century Turk who reportedly launched himself 300 meters using a cone filled with gunpowder, or the effete Montgolfier Brothers of Louis XVI’s France who were the first to launch a hot air balloon. Murrow chose the Wright Brothers as his model and, in doing so, plays upon America’s national identity. The men are shown in flat caps and suspenders. They are tall and thin with thick glasses and rigid jaws. When things don’t go well, one brother swipes his Stetson in an « aw-shucks » gesture.
« The Freshwater Narwhal Hoax » could have been about an Amazonian insect, but it is about looking for whales on the St. Lawrence River. With Melvillesque undertones, Murrow has marine biologists on streamer ships weaving a fantastic tale only to be exposed as frauds. The notion of freshwater whale is on the edge of believability. The University of Vermont Perkins Geology Museum proudly displays the bones of an ice-age era beluga whale found in 1849 on the shores of Lake Champlain. A website for visitors to the North Shore of Lake Superior playfully reports on « whale sightings » in Minnesota. There is something perversely American about the investigation in things that do not exist be they UFO’s, assassination conspiracies, or supernatural aquatic life. The television show The X Files told us « The Truth Is Out There » and suggested « I Want to Believe ». Barnum and Banvard, the Murrow’s whale researchers, lure us into believing with cetacean broadcasters, artic re-projectors, and sonar buoys that attract whales.
The Narwhals Hoax is eventully exposed by intrepid journalists in a piece titled « Uncovering and dissecting a hoax is hard work but reporters and publishers are very good at that kind of thing. » When science fails, the media steps in to save us.
From 1951 to 1955, Edward R. Murrow hosted a five-minute radio program called This I Believe. During the program, guests made commentary about their personal philosophies. It was the rawest form of journalism. It was simple and democratic. Edward wanted to report the truth about what people thought. The truth Ethan is feeding us may be hard to swallow : We believe in glory as defined by fame not deeds. We believe in success as marked by riches not accomplishment. We will believe in anything if it dressed up in science until it is exposed by the media.
But there is another truth to the characters in Murrow’s work. The Dust Miners are rich with grit and perseverance. Pinto Brothers are patient risk takers. Barnum and Banvard are creative and industrious, earnest in their endeavors, be they misguided or not. The Doomed Explorer believes in himself. Though foolish and imperfect, Murrow’s characters are authentic and real. We should be so lucky that those qualities are also the truth about us.
Ethan Murrow’s America // Ric Kasini Kadour