Humilitation I.Q is an exhibition of paintings that explore the relationship between memory and cognition. Michael Morley asks 'How can memory and cognition be manipulated by painting?'

Dunedin based artist Michael Morley will open his exhibition of paintings entitled Humiliation I.Q on Tuesday 8 th June 5.30pm at the Physics Room contemporary art project space, 209 Tuam Street, Christchurch.  The show will run from the 9 th of June to the 2 nd July.

The 12" vinyl record and turntable are the subject for the series of paintings.  Morley states that, 'the paintings are an attempt at examining the gap that exists between the knowledge (or not) of recorded material held by the viewer. Each painting is titled after a particular album released as a 12" vinyl record, thus identifying something to the viewer that they will either recognise or not' .  

Each painted record is positioned on a record player with the tone arm extended across the disc to imply playing.  'This investigates how sound is a peculiar abstract phenomena, like ghosts or apparitions, except that we cannot generally see sound, except for synasthetes. We do however possess the ability to hear or feel sound because of the physics of sound ' Morley says.

Morleys second group of paintings are of buildings. These explore the absence of sound. The buildings are all unidentified buildings but are sourced from images Morley recorded over the last ten years from visits to large cities, mostly New York , San Francisco , and Los Angeles. The buildings are rendered as mute objects, devoid of their general relationship to the city and humans.

Michael Morley
Version On-Line Magazine, June, 2004
Alastair Crawford
<also available online>

Humiliation vs. Stereo
The Package
Jkasper
<available online via the Physics Room Archive>

Humiliation IQ.  
Essay by Alistair Crawford
in The Physics Room Annual 2004
ISBN 0-9582651-2-7