Disjecta Membra
Playing on the archaeological theme, the Disjecta Membra is essentially an ode to “the fragment”. In celebrating lost pieces and oddly assembled parts, the works involve broken objects, the active breaking of objects and the construction and reconstruction of objects. Consisting of the first chapter of a continuing project, Disjecta Membra was set up and shown for the first time in DA artspace, Heraklion (Crete, Greece), in October 2018.
The Latin expression “disjecta membra” signifies “scattered fragments”. It is frequently used to refer to surviving textual passages or pieces of ancient pottery. Taking a rather literal read on the term, however, Céline Murphy, here choose to understand it as “scattered limbs”. Broken ceramic bodies, fragments of clay limbs, orphaned and rejected water-color body parts, are therefore what the works created as part of this project consist of. Both ancient and modern in appearance, the Disjecta Membra appear as odd remains, as strange documents and weird artifacts, and as survivors of time. Disjecta membra are therefore where stories begin.
For Disjecta Membra Céline spread over on the floor at the entrance of a gallery 300 miniature ceramic limbs (reminiscent of prehistoric figurines). In order to enter, visitors had no choice but to step on the limbs thus crushing them to pieces. Daily visits to the gallery created thousands of fragments. Playing with the theory of enchainment, which proposes that humans use object fragments to represent connections over space and time between individuals and social groups, visitors were invited to take a fragment away with them. At the end of the exhibition, remaining pieces and clay powder were collected. By actively involving the audience in the breakage and dispersal process, Disjecta Membra addressed the question of who was responsible for the breakage (the visitors? me? the circumstances?) and why we attribute such value to fragments we consider as ancient
Presented in the form of installations and displays, and involving active participation on the part of visitors, the works address the following questions: who broke these objects?, how were the objects broken?, and why were the objects broken? Disjecta Membra are also an opportunity to consider the relationship between the part and the whole: does the part always belong to a whole?, are breakage and creation so different from each other?
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