Artist statement from the original Festival website:

The cacophonous actions and objects that one encounters in everyday life are not only often absurd but also are the unseen details that define our characters and separate us from all others as individual beings. McMurry’s work as part of the Ego series seeks to make manifest these day-to-day actions and interactions with objects to illustrate a vocabulary with the outside world, a vocabulary that has been developed over the span of his life.

Jamie McMurry has been working as an artist, organiser and educator in the fields of performance, video, installation and conceptual art since 1995. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

New Statement dated June 2020:

Friends. I have engaged in some very thoughtful conversation with many of you over the years about this subject and finally today is the time to take action. It is with sadness and pain that I announce my departure from the world of art. I will no longer accept invitations to perform or exhibit work and I will no longer pursue private or public funding from any source for use in the creation or execution of my own artwork. The art world is a disaster disguised as culture and the function of art has been mutated into an encyclical, self-referential steaming pile of puss and wealth, mostly at the hands of white male artists, curators, historians, theorists and administrators.

I acknowledge that I have greatly benefited from my gender and the color of my skin in all that has been given to me as a human and as an artist. My hope is that what I chose to do with this privilege has benefited those who have seen it. 

Many artists tend to believe that their compulsion to make art needs to be translated into a life-long career. Our job and income driven society re-enforces this instinct. I have come to believe that ones art practice has a tangible beginning, middle and end like all things in life and when an artist sees an end point to the facilitation of their ideas, then they have an obligation to address that end rather than making the same repetitive works with the same repetitive concepts and ideas over and over and over again. What happens in the world around us can also facilitate what one might perceive as a premature end, as our collective perceptions of the world around us shift and evolve.

My decision is based on a mixture of all these things but most importantly is an effort to step aside and make room for voices from women, from trans artists, from artists of color and everyone in between. I can no longer occupy opportunity and resources that should be given to other artists to help tip the balance of inequality and anti-diversity.

I thank all of you for an incredible ride. I am grateful for all the love, friendship, opportunity and ideas that you have all shared with me. You know who you are.