The work from the young artist’s duo Komen/Murphy is characterized by a constant navigating between truth and credibility. Often quite personal stories are told in their video installations, whereby it is left to the viewer to decide whether it is reality or fiction. The stories have strong autobiographical elements. Events from Komen's life are mixed with private matters from Murphy's world, leading to a new reality. This installation is on the same lines as earlier video installations from this duo, like Panic Wagon (1994) and A Ghost Story (1996) in which the Murphy family is also used. This time, the viewer is witness to a dramatic event from the life of uncle Edward. A somewhat corny atmosphere has been created in a semi darkened space. The colour of the walls (ochre) and the images which are projected in full size exude a reliable, old fashioned atmosphere. It is the spirit of uncle Edward that dominates in this space. The visitor becomes part of his life story that is told like an anecdote by a neutral computer generated voice and appears simultaneously as text on a monitor. The 'audio textual' report of a moving and fateful occurrence from the life of this man alternates with still images, taken in his striking hotel room in Scotland where he lived from his forty seventh year of life. The story (uncle Edward imagines that he is a racing cyclist taking part in the Tour de France) and the images are quite divorced from each other, but come together in the visitor's fantasy. Gradually it becomes clear that the images are silent witnesses of uncle Edward; the kind of person that he was and what television programmes, for example, that he liked. The viewer get steadily more and more of an impression of his immediate, characteristic, living environment and can form a steadily better image of this man. The story then suddenly takes an unexpected, tragic twist and the images move symbolically with it. Uncle Edward's stair is no ordinary stair any more, it is his 'stairway to heaven'.
– Marieke van Hal
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