Groundwork

With her solo presentation Groundwork, Ceidra Moon Murphy continues her interrogation of the transparency surrounding state procedures and Public-Private partnerships. She draws attention to the architecture that exists to support them. Centred around Earwitness, a series of disused commercial flight recorders made by the defence company Lockheed Martin, the world’s leading arms manufacturer, the works in this exhibition question how far states and their contractors act within the public interest in times of rapidly increasing military spending. Germany has most recently purchased Lockheed’s F-35 fighter jets as part of its Zeitenwende to reach NATO’s defence spending target. Groundwork focuses on the opaque web of relationships between countries and their defence companies, and examines the considerations regarding commercial position and status within the industry which are prioritised at the expense of public safety. Murphy uses the neutrality and muteness of the exhibition space to appropriate the silence from the sites and instruments of obfuscation presented.