Found branches wrapped in fabric, paint, wire, tape. 350 x 200 x 200 cm approx.

Mise en Abyme is a French expression to mirror or repeat. Our title refers to repeated studies, enquiries and reports documenting species collapse, environmental degradation and water stress. Yet, it’s business as usual and nothing changes. In Mise-en-abyme, we use blue saplings to brace a cluster of black and burnt trees in a mutually supporting structure to conveys the notion that though damaged there is the capability of regeneration. The natural world depends on changes in human actions to survive.

Murray and Burgess in MAPBM group show BLUE TOO, Wayout Gallery Kandos NSW March 2021

240x750x560cm recycled purlins, house paint

Tipping point is the critical point in a situation, process, or system beyond which a significant and often unstoppable effect or change takes place. Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Murray and Burgess reuse wood, once-were-trees, in all their weighty imperfection.

Yellow purlins of wood are suspended in air, temporarily stalled, waiting, their inevitable crashing to ground deferred while some decision or action can take place. Some have already hit ground, about-to-fall, poised in their unbalance, their point of tipping.

Compressed in-between spaces, making difficult passage between the in-your-face yellow.

SOLO exhibition 4-28 March 202, Murray and Burgess at Factory49 Marrickville

Salvaged timber, steel, cotton, bitumen paint

‘Un-Forest’ is a mini forest of eleven dead trees enclosed by siren-yellow skirts. This life-and-death image is a stark reminder we need to speedily take action to address the causes of man-made climate change. The months-long summer bushfire disaster clearly demonstrated climate changes’ effects of long term drying and higher temperatures, for-warned by scientific reports. We see logging of unburnt forests threatening the viability of surviving native animals. The continued clearing of tropical forests, itself a major factor in climate change, and the associated pressure on animal species, is now being shown to increase the likelihood of animal to-human transmission of new diseases. Already we see life on earth being dramatically affected. Un-forest makes visible the interconnections between the natural world and human action, connections necessary for our mutual survival. Exhibited finalist:

North Sydney Art Prize, The Coal Loader Site Waverton 2019

Hidden Rookwood Cemetery 2019

Contour 556, Canberra 2020

Murray and Burgess attempt to get a grip on their own consumption. They challenged each other to account for ten weeks of their production of ‘recyclable waste.’ The implicit challenge for society is what’s next. Recycling is not sexy. The symbolic open vessels in the exhibition are crudely constructed mash-ups of discarded metal forming seven standing structures.

Recycled steel and wire, paint, paper

Installation, seven sculptures

Solo Exhibition Murray and Burgess at Factory 49 January 2019

Fabric, fishing line, timber dowels, 12.5 x 4.7 m;  video “Pas de Deux”.

In this installation Murray and Burgess continue their exploration of home/homelessness through the enclosure of space and shape.

A photo of a tent divided by sheets and fabric was the starting point of Passage. Single women on the Nauru detention centre had attempted to create conditions of privacy and a tenuous kind of security for themselves. In Chrissie Cotter Gallery, we have been looking at the shifting sense of enclosure and passage using lengths of fabric left over from a previous project. Cross glimpses encourage onward exploration of the structure. Light, sun and air movements change alter the solidity and translucency of the fragile walls. The luminous green and images of children playing produce a sense of renewal.

Recycled plywood and cast iron railway plates, timber 2017

With this work Murray and Burgess continue their exploration of homelessness. This work started as Dorothy’s House’ and ‘We are all Strangers’ at Chrissie Cotter Gallery in 2016. Their deconstructed timber house conveys turmoil, and the suspension of life in detention camps. 


Group exhibition The Waiting Room Articulate Project Space - 2017

Hydro stone, wire, hessian. Size variable

The Battlers were 13 women from Hunters Hill who banded together to save eight hectares (20 acres) of bushland by the harbour adjoining Kelly’s Smelting Works. When the works closed in 1971 the Battlers enlisted the support of Jack  Mundey and the NSW Builders Labourers who placed the world's first Green Ban on Kelly's Bush  to preserve the bushland against development.

Finalist - Harbour Sculpture 2017
Finalist - Art on the GreenWay 2017

WE ARE ALL THE SAME, 2016

Hydro stone, wire, hessian. Size variable

These are shocking times when we realise despite the differences in race, religion or sexuality we are all the same. We have the responsibility to recognise the human rights of those seeking refuge or asylum.

Finalist- North Sydney Art Prize 2017

Collaboration with Mandy Burgess

Hydro-stone, hessian, lime wash, wire, steel. Each 60-100cm high

These hands reflect rich daily lives of the four generations of women from the same family who lived at Meroogal, Nowra from 1885 to the 1985.

Selected for Sydney Living Museums exhibition Meroogal Womens Art prize 2016

Collaboration - Murray and Burgess

Hydro-stone, hessian, lime wash, wire, steel. Each 60-100cm high

The ideas of asking for help and extending a hand comes to mind today in Australia, particularly in light of refugees in Australia's off-shore detention centres.

Selected Sculpture at Killalea 2016, Shellharbour

Selected Sculpture in the Vineyards 2016, Wollombi

Solo Exhibition - Chrissie Cotter Gallery, 2016

Collaboration - Murray and Burgess

A collaboration between Ro Murray and Mandy Burgess.

Dorothy’s house 2015-16,

Timber framed canvas house 230x150x60cm

Silhouette plywood figures life size

Relics found plastic

1 in every 122 people in the world are displaced (2014 UNHCR Report)

There were 367 children in immigration detention seeking asylum in Australia as of April 2016 (Asylum Seeker Resource Centre)

“The shrinking of imaginative identification which allows such things as shared humanity to be forgotten always begins at home” (Robinson 2012, 31) (Imagining…P16)

Home is a ‘spatial imaginary’ to which we attach feelings of both refuge and danger. It includes in its meaning an idea of where we can safely settle and daydream, but also an idea of exclusion. It encompasses the gamut of what it means to be human. The installation homesweethome looks at the notion of home in the light of global displacement and the local detention of refugees and asks us to look at our human responses to crisis.

We use the idea of home as in Alison and Dowling's 'Spatial imaginary': as overlapping physical and emotional contexts. The notion of home also sets in tension the domestic and outside worlds, us and them.

The installation Dorothy’s House explores the imagery of Dorothy's home being swept away by a tornado in Kansas, from Salman Rushdie’s notion of the film The Wizard of Oz as an archetypal moving home story.

The installation We are all Strangers brings to mind both the ideas of asking for help and extending a hand, particularly in light of refugees in Australia's off-shore detention centres.

Relics explores the notion of people losing their home due to natural disaster, war, or civil unrest, and then having to seek refuge.

Gallery Images - David Roche

Solo Exhibition - Home Sweet Home, Chrissie Cotter Gallery 2016
Finalist - Harbour Sculpture 2017
Finalist - Sculptures at Scenic World 2018

Recycled synthetic grass, size variable

Selected Redfern Biennale 2015 (Damien Minton Gallery)

Gaffa tape on footpath, size variable

Redfern Biennale is a single day event each year in March on the streets of Redfern Housing Commission. “The opportunity for artists to recontexturalise their art work along the street and being prepared to display work in an exposed, loose, environment, releasing the preciousness of white cultural institutional walls.

 Anything can happen in a cluster fuck aesthetic environment so please jump in and participate.  

There is no Council approval; we are just placing the work on the streets for 7 hours.” Damien Minton

Selected Redfern Biennale (Damian Minton Gallery)

Gaffa tape

Artists in Transit

Behind a line of shops opposite, is the train line about to be discontinued. Not far beyond that, is a magnificent harbour with another coal loading facility just completed. Here in the almost empty David Jones Emporium is mould. On the beach are new high rise apartments casting long afternoon shadows. On Hunter Street we have contemporary art, bridal shops, brothels and gourmet funky cafes.

‘Revive Newcastle’ has been a pilot for other dying towns in NSW, including Sydney. Should we look at other #successfulltownstories in Australia? Albany (WA) has made the old whaling station and it’s gory past a successful tourist attraction, and the wind farm another tourist attraction (generates 80% of the town’s power).

Site specific installation at NANA Contemporary Art Space The Emporium Newcastle 2014

Chrissie Cotter Gallery Camperdown, 2014

Artists in Transit (Ro Murray and Susie Williams) in collaboration with Warren Armstrong

Sounds of Silence :Chippendalegaffa tape, 5 pieces 275x160cm

This site specific installation is a visual record of sounds in Camperdown. Which began when Murray and Williams began posting drawings to each other of a sound they were hearing, while Murray was Artist in Residence at Hill End with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. Murray drew in ink, and Williams drew in coded coloured pastel. "Sounds of Silence: Camperdown" continues a series of drawn audio maps that so far include Redfern, Chippendale and Mosman, which are explored through coloured tape.

 Di-a-log 2014 inkjet prints 500x240

These postcards record a conversation between Artists in Transit throughout 2014, on their travels locally and overseas. 

Treuga Australis 2014, size variable recycled steel cotton, masking tape

The installation is about the human right of seeking asylum with background reading of Advance Australia Fair.

Canopy 2014 size variable, glass and plastic, synthetic grass, gaffa tape, MDF

The 2010 American documentary film Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic? exposed the effects of plastic bags and other plastic consumer merchandise, and its effects on land ecosystems, the marine environment and the human body. “Bag It” pointed out the recycle symbols 3, 6 and7 are not recyclable despite our best intentions by putting it in the yellow bin. And that it takes two thirds of a water bottle of oil, to make that plastic bottle. 

Synthetic grass, gaffa tape, stolen plastic crates

November 2012 Murray and Williams met at a residency at Kandos NSW, to prepare for installation in Cementa13 Contemporary Art Festival, and founded the collaboration Artists in Transit.

The installations at Ambush were made over the Christmas break were initially titled Testing I,II (the other is A Float: Ambush Gallery). This was the first time Murray and Williams had used milk crates and synthetic grass, which they continued for the next two years.

Home Turf was developed against the wall murals by street artists Phibs, Beastman, Yok and Numskull. From a “sweet spot” site/sight- lines were drawn across the floor with coloured 50mm tape. To this were added reflections of elements from the walls, and the four directions of space (NSEW) by plastic crates at one metre intervals.

Site specific installationAmbush Gallery Garage, 4 James Street Waterloo 2-4 January 2013.

Size variable each vessel 205x60 cm Recycled steel, synthetic grass and cotton, coloured tape, smart phone

A Float by Artists in Transit (Ro Murray and Susie Williams) with new media artist Warren Armstrong was in installed in several locations.

The work was both real and virtual and engaged with the various sites through smartphones using a free augmented reality app called Layar.

The vessel form was an idea of transformation from the way we think, act and feel from issues of sustainability (metals and coal) and humanity (refugees), with variation of titles to the work.  

Selected Finalist- North Sydney Art Prize Balls Head 2013

Selected Finalist-Hidden Rookwood Cemetery Sculpture Walk 2013

Selected Finalist-Harbour Sculpture Woolwich 2014

Chalk, gaffa tape and synthetic grass. Sydney Harbour National Park Gun Emplacement of the Outer Fort, Middle Head Mosman. 

“A Float” is a series of site specific installation with ‘boat forms’ used by the collaboration ‘Artists in Transit’, Ro Murray and Susie Williams.

This work was commissioned to coincide with the International Fleet Review and the 100 year anniversary of the Royal Australian Navy. “A Float: They Came from the East” offers different viewpoints of experience: from above, as seen by the inhabitants at the time, around the edges of the gun emplacement; and experienced from below as a walk-through at ground (water) level, with only the sky seen. The vessels negotiate through The Heads working with the tide, the wind and the channel up into the narrow back waters of the river and creeks.

“East, Beyond the Heads”, is an adjoining installation by ‘Artists in Transit” with a compass marked with the geographical features of Sydney to protect and identify.

Commissioned: by Mosman Art Gallery for “Middle Head: On-Site”

Artists in Transit (Ro Murray and Susie Williams)

240x200x60cm recycled acrylic, stainless steel

This installation with black vessels was made at Ambush Gallery Waterloo for documentation purposes to apply for various art prizes. It was at the time when politicians (initially Labor then Abbot) were saying “Stop The Boats”. Supposedly to stop people smugglers and save lives lost as sea, without consideration of  offering refuge to asylum seekers. In 2014 the four-year budget of $20 million was spent in one year.

Synthetic grass off cuts, plywood canoe, discarded electrical cables, found steel, recycled plastic bottles, gaffa tape, lino.Size approx. 800x800cm

November 2012 Murray and Susie Williams met at a residency at Kandos NSW, to prepare for installation in Cementa13 Contemporary Art Festival, and founded the collaboration Artists in Transit.

The installations at Ambush were made over the Christmas break were initially titled Testing I,II. It was the first time they used the boat form and synthetic grass, which was to be there trade mark for the next two years.

Site specific installation (photographed at Ambush Gallery 4 James Street Waterloo)

Images - Peter Morgan

Found furniture and objects, preservatives, pavers, canvas, gaffa tape. Size variable

The castle is a folly capturing the essence of Kandos: the abandoned cement works and railway line, Dunns Swamp (Ganguddy) in the National Park which supplied the water for the cement works, and Coomber Melon Mountain which is a back drop to the town.

Commissioned work by Artists in Transit (Murray and Williams) for Cementa13 Contemporary Arts Festival Kandos 1-4 February 2013

PE piping, cable ties, gaffa tape, variable size

Artists in Transit reworked four of Murray’s piping structures with coloured tape.

The connections we make today with others is on–line, through email, mobiles Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. We blog, we like, we share, we flag, we advertise, we follow, we friend, we go viral without consideration of the electricity IT consumes. “How Green is Your Cloud” by Greenpeace discloses the facts. Apple, Amazon and Microsoft rely heavily on dirty (coal) power. Yahoo and Google lead the way with renewable energy. Facebook has now committed to renewable energy in its latest data centre in Sweden.

Selected Sculpture Walk Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney 2013

Exhibited Chrissie Cotter Gallery Camperdown 2013

Selected Sydney Fringe Festival Seymour Centre 2103

Selected North Sydney Art Prize Balls Head Waverton 2015

Chrissie Cotter Gallery Camperdown

Artists in Transit and Warren Armstrong considered this a two week residency with Marrickville Council to recapture the spirit of their collaboration the previous 9 months.

“Centre Court: Homage to MONA” brings the tennis outside into the gallery space, using different scale courts on the floor and wall, with north south orientation. Projection overlay of 3 time-lapse video installations of “Sounds of Silence”, at Redfern, Mosman and Chippendale.  Material: coloured gaffer tape, video .

“How Green is Your Cloud” originally made by Ro Murray, and reworked with gaffa tape for ‘Artisan Sculpture Walk’ in the Royal Botanical Gardens, has had a colour change to white, to match the gallery walls. Material:  P.E. piping, cable ties, gaffer tape, recycled computer leads, cable ties.

 “Time Piece I, II, III, IV ” are drawings/sculptures made from earlier de-installed gaffer tape installations. The audio accompaniment records gaffer tape being removed.

“Making Connections” was installed at Seymour Centre for Sydney Fringe Festival this year. Using gaffer tape on the brick wall and paving  to expand the basket structures. Here PVC tape echoes the interconnecting lines.  Video projection of “A Float :They Came from the East” , commissioned by Mosman Art Gallery for the exhibition “Middle Head: Onsite”, to coincide with the International Fleet Review.

 “Home Turf I,II” The original “Home Turf” was installed in the garage of Ambush Gallery, Waterloo. The installation used gaffer tape,plastic crates and synthetic grass to create sight/site lines responding to the street art by Phibs, Beastman, Numbskull and Yok. “Home Turf II” suspends the virtual component of “A Float: Coal Loader”; augmented sculpted boats from the installation for North Sydney Art Prize.

By Artists in Transit (Ro Murray and Susie Williams) in collaboration with Warren Armstrong.

Description of the Original Work

While Murray was Artist in Residence at Hill End, with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, over February 2013, Murray and Williams sent by Australia Post, a drawing to each other, of a sound they were experiencing. Sound of Silence explored multiple senses to communicate an experience of silence. The sound of silence was continued until a letter was opened.

The installation of the letters from the 28 day collaboration was installed at SLOT Gallery, Redfern over April and May 2013. Murray drew in ink the sounds of music, mossies and the odd power tool, while Williams drew in coloured pastel code lines of white noise. Descriptions of local sound: birds, breeze, people, industry and traffic.

The installation was developed over a series of process drawings interpreting the original letters and the local acoustic ecology, on to the glass gallery front and the white back walls, in coloured tape. Using coloured electrical tape to represent different types of sound. AIT made a visual record of the sounds of the surrounding environment as heard in the gallery space.

The visual elements of the installation were accompanied by sound-scapes that documented some of the sounds being listened to during the process, and explored responses to the work via sonification. These included a binaural recording of the sounds heard by Williams while she was drawing, a “glossary” of sound snippets corresponding to the colours used in the coloured tape piece on the glass gallery front, a “musical piece” derived from sonifications of Armstrong’s brain waves as he watched the installation process, a recording of a vocal performance done by Murray and Williams in response to the original drawings, and a musical score that Armstrong created by converting the back wall tape compositions into notes on staves superimposed over an image of the work.

The installation experiment continued to NG Gallery Pop UP, 82 Broadway responding to the Chippendale New World Art Prize “Revitalisation” brief, with synthetic grass segments on the floor, contained by tape, and reflected through the glass outside on the paving with tape, and coloured coded horizontal tape on the glass wall, accompanied by sounds/brain-wave sonifications recorded during the installation by Armstrong.

Installed –SLOT Window Gallery Redfern 2013,

Solo Exhibition –Chrissie Cotter Gallery Camperdown, Marrickville Council 2014

Selected Finalist- Chippendale New World Art Prize, 2013

Selected Finalist- InSitu 13 Optometrist Military Road Mosman 2013

Selected Finalist –Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize 2014