Film Screening – Remaking the Crust of the Earth

With an introduction by Film Curator Alice Butler, and a post screening Q+A with Gavin Murphy.

Through the unlikely accident of its discovery to its present day ubiquity, Gavin Murphy's film ‘Remaking the Crust of the Earth’ considers glass in its myriad guises: presenting a layered, cultural history examining the ways in which glass has transformed society, how humans situate themselves within the environment, and how we view the world. Its visual centre-point is a recreation of a series of photographic tests to illustrate the concealing power of glasses, that were produced for the encyclopaedic 1937 publication ‘Glass in Architecture and Decoration’, by Raymond McGrath & A.C. Frost. Born in Australia of Irish descent, McGrath was among the pioneering architects in 1930s England, pre-eminent in the use of glass, light and colour. During the Second World War McGrath moved to Dublin to a position in the Office of Public Works, becoming Principal Architect from 1948–1968.

Gavin Murphy is a Dublin-based artist and curator with an interest in cultural sites and histories. His research-based, intertextual practice involves the assemblage of unique fabricated elements, sourced and found objects, images and texts, exploring the sculptural possibilities of cinematic structures and mise en scène. Solo exhibitions include The necessity of ruins (Films 2012–2023), Composite Moving Image, Melbourne, 2024; Remaking the Crust of the Earth, Irish Architectural Archive, 2023; Double Movement, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, 2017; In Art We Are Poor Citizens, Hugh Lane Gallery, 2014; and Something New Under the Sun, Royal Hibernian Academy, 2012.

Free, book or come on the day subject to availability.