About Frequencies

Inspired by seeing graffitied wooden desks in a school in La Paila, (the small town in Colombia where he spent his childhood years), the artist Oscar Murillo set up an experiment in 2013. He arranged for raw canvases to be fixed onto desktops in classrooms in a few schools, where they were left for the students to mark in any way they wanted.

Over the course of a term, the canvases were covered with doodles and drawings, names of friends and celebrities, messages and images, flowers, hearts and skulls. What do these canvases convey about the adolescent mind and the urge to communicate through marks, signs and images?

Over the past 8 years, the experiment has grown into an immense project called Frequencies, spanning 350 schools in 35 countries around the world. There are now over 40,000 individual canvases, made by over 100,000 students aged 10-16.

For the first time ever, the Frequencies canvases have been brought together in a large-scale installation conceived by Oscar Murillo and the Frequencies Foundation team for the Sports Hall of Cardinal Pole Catholic School, where Oscar himself was a student between the ages of 11 –18.

Each canvas tells its own story of dreams, desires, frustrations and restraints. Taken together, they comprise a vast archive of energies that reflect local and global identities and competing desires to break free and belong.

You are welcome to interact with the canvases in various ways – survey the stacks in the storage section, view close-ups on digital screens, look at canvases chosen by guest selectors, and make your own selection in the central area of the exhibition.

About Oscar Murillo

Born in La Paila, Colombia in 1986, Oscar Murillo moved with his parents to London when he was 10 years old. He studied at Cardinal Pole Catholic School before going to art school in London. His main studio is based in north-east London.

Over the past decade, Murillo has become known for a practice that encompasses paintings, works on paper, sculptures, installations, actions, live events, collaborative projects, and videos. Recent solo exhibitions include 'Social Altitude', Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, (2020); 'Horizontal Darkness in Search of Solidarity', Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany, (2019-20); 'Violent Amnesia', Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK (2019); 'Capsule 07: Oscar Murillo', Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, (2017-18).

Taken as a whole, his work emphasises the many ways in which ideas, visual languages and everyday items are in a state of flux: displaced, in circulation, and intermingling. He has exhibited widely in art spaces around the world, and in 2019 shared the Turner Prize alongside artists Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock and Tai Shani.

Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Murillo has been closely involved in humanitarian work in Colombia. From his base in La Paila, he has planned this exhibition over the past year, as well as making a series of paintings called Disrupted Frequencies, several of which are installed in the Sports Hall. He recently returned to London to oversee the installation of Frequencies in his old school.

Address

Cardinal Pole Catholic School

205 Morning Lane

E9 6LG

London

Opening Times/ Days

24 July – 30 August 2021

• 11:00–19:00 BST | Tuesday – Thursday
• 12:00–20:00 BST | Friday – Saturday
• 12:00–17:00 BST | Sunday and bank holidays (Monday 30 August)

This exhibition is free to attend and is suitable for all ages.

We'd love to know if you're coming so we could keep an eye on the capacity for each day and ensure the safety and comfort of all of our visitors.

Timed tickets are in operation to visit the exhibition however advanced registration is optional. Book your free tickets now or upon arrival.

To support flexibility, when life just happens, please arrive within your booked time slot.

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