A few years ago we introduced you to the work of assemblage artist Kendal Murray in which we featured her miniature worlds created within compact purse mirrors. Today we share with you more of her physical representations of the human psychological experience created on a miniature scale, only this time they are constructed atop coin purses.

Kendal Murray Coin Purse Assemblages

Murray began creating these miniature mixed media assemblages as far back as 2007. In the ongoing series, the tiny dioramas communicate the experiences of interiority and their interconnection with memory and subjectivity, according to the artist.

With these pieces the landscape provides both context for the stories at play and underscore the implicit values and cultural significance of our constructed relationships with nature.

Public parks have been depicted on the two landscaped covered purses “Catch, Snatch, Mismatch” and “Bird in Hand, Promised Land” to represent the sanctuary provided by green space within an urban area. We are made aware of the constructed design of the public gardens in these artworks, which suggests the space has been provided for the community as a functional interlude to urban life.

The tactile qualities of the materials are interconnected with the physical and emotive experiences of the artwork. ‘Treasure, Measure, Pleasure’ and ‘Untied, Joyride’ are created as landscaped purses with miniature trees, plants, flowers, people, bikes, birds and a dog.

“Prompted by the scale and the links to the imagery of dreams, we fantasize that we too are part of the tiny scenes. We imagine walking through the landscape, discovering even tinier items that weren’t revealed to us at first glance, as we hear the birds, the rustle of the leaves in the trees or the sound of the motor bike as it speeds off through the garden.”- Kendal Murray

An aircraft modeler searches the sky for his favorite plane, lifted from his view in “Flight, Plight, Out Of Sight” and two naked lovers are spied upon in a treehouse in “Discover Love Undercover”.

In “Family Style, Smile” time is re-presented in the tiny dreamscape. The familiarity of this scenario and the other artworks in the series, seem to suggest memories or nostalgia for an often told family story, but these events might have just sprung forth like an idea in the imagination, or they may have evolved and grown over many visits to a familiar scenario.

The recreation of the spaces as daydream evolves through the narratives that are implied, and their miniature size enacts a type of longing for the viewer, to be in that world again, even for just a short time. To hold on to things we loved and valued, in an attempt to re-experience them through our fantasies (Kendal Murray, 2012).

You can find some of these original pieces for sale at Arthouse Gallery and Paradigm Arts

Kendal Murray

all images and information, courtesy of Kendal Murray