In 2017, endemicworld hosted ‘Golden Summer’, a show by Ross Murray and Greg Straight. This Thursday marks the opening of Ross’ first solo exhibition over at The Tuesday Club on Airedale Street. The show, titled ‘Rufus Marigold’, doubles as a launch for his debut graphic novel of the same name. We caught up with Ross and asked him a few questions.
Rufus Marigold Opening Night
Thursday 28th February, 6:30-8:30pm
The Tuesday Club, 42 Airedale St, Auckland Central.
View Facebook event for more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/337389540449378/
1. Tell us a bit about this ‘Rufus Marigold’ fellow.
Rufus is a chimpanzee who suffers from extreme social anxiety. He’s a budding artist but spends his days working in an office. As life becomes increasingly more of a struggle, Rufus yearns to be defined as something other than a complete nervous wreck. The character is loosely based on myself at a certain stage of my life. Making comics can be a really cost-effective mode of therapy!
2. It sounds surreal and quite heavy?
It is indeed a bit surreal but I promise you it’s actually a comedy! Albeit quite a dark one… One of the vital parts of coming to terms with my own anxiety was learning to laugh at myself and ‘Rufus Marigold’ is definitely me doing that.
3. What kind of work can we expect to see at the exhibition?
It will be quite a mix. There will be some limited edition screen prints, acrylic paintings on canvas, some pencil drawings and watercolour studies. Plus a bunch of one-off giclée prints, some of them large panels from the comic, others ‘deleted scenes’ which mostly involve Rufus coming to some grisly demise. I love Rufus but he’s also my anxiety personified so I also quite enjoy torturing him. In the nicest possible way.
4. Do you usually work in such a diverse range of mediums?
No – most of my work is created using digital tools but I wanted to mix it up a bit for this one. The whole aesthetic of screen printing has been a big influence on my art style so it’s been fun creating those. Drawing with pencil is something I used to do a lot of but nowadays don’t often get time to. In the book, Rufus paints with watercolours – I can’t claim to have any watercolour painting skills so I had to channel my inner monkey for those ones.
5. Finally, why all the horses and flowers?
Rufus is obsessed with drawing horses and flowers. So you’d be forgiven for thinking the show was a collection of Rufus’ artwork. However, I can completely assure you the work is all mine. If a nervous-looking chimpanzee tries to tell you otherwise, don’t believe him.
View Facebook event for more details: https://www.facebook.com/events/337389540449378/