In the middle of Harvard Square, with pedestrians bustling by, there’s a fish sitting in a bathtub. He’s patient, watching everything unfold from behind a window. His name is Septimus, and he’s a sculptural character within Tired Clichés, a solo installation by Isola Murray, an artist and art educator originally from Western Massachusetts. The exhibition, curated by Yolanda He Yang, runs at 25/8 artspace located at 2 Linden Street, Cambridge through February 4.
25/8 artspace is itself an intervention in the everyday. A slim, hallway-sized gallery nestled in the heart of Harvard Square, it was opened in 2023 through a collaboration between building owner Intercontinental Management, Yang, and Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association (HSBA). The tiny gallery serves as a physical reminder that creativity can thrive even when made narrow.
The space was created almost serendipitously, the result of a Cambridge zoning code requiring a maximum street frontage of 25 linear feet (here, between Mass Ave and Linden Street)—which inadvertently created a “false wall” on the side of Santander Bank. Rather than let the area go to waste, the HSBA worked with Intercontinental Management to transform it into a refuge for art.
The name given to 25/8 reflects two sources of inspiration. First, in curator Yang’s view, it’s a reference to the amount of time museum staff spend in their jobs: somehow, they find and devote an extra hour to each day, and an extra day to each week. Second, it references the original “Gallery 24/7,” a former repurposed Bank of America ATM at Mount Auburn and Holyoke Streets, which was converted into a temporary all-day, all-night artists’ collaborative in 2022. That gallery featured local artists and exhibited work in a mix of styles. From those beginnings, 25/8 artspace emerged as a more permanent, if still snug, home for artistic exploration.
25/8 is also the gallery for the larger project “Behind VA Shadows” (VA stands for Visitor Assistants), a creative collaboration created by Yang after the pandemic. Noticing the level of burnout experienced by museum staff at the Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA), Yang spearheaded an initiative to create art opportunities for museum workers. Murray and Yang originally met working together at the ICA, where they bonded over a shared love for whimsical and inventive art. 25/8 has become the dedicated spot to showcase the art of museum workers, like Murray, through this project.
“There’s a term, called an ‘alternative art space,’” explains Yang. “Meaning, out of institutional control or management—and we all know why we need places like this. Too often, management is more concerned with administrative processes, like paperwork, than artistic vision. So, one thing I keep very clear and firm about the curatorial vision of this space is that I want artists to have the opportunity to experiment.”
Bringing new installations into the petite space always requires a bit of physical and logistical finagling, and Murray’s Tired Clichés is no exception. According to Yang, all new exhibitions are set up by community volunteers, who help to create the view seen from the street. The space rotates art every 4-6 weeks, sponsored by the HSBA.
Inside this portal now, all nine of Murray’s sculptures from Tired Clichés gaze out. They are a whimsical tableau of papier-mâché and mixed-media creatures, set within household scenes. Each are imbued with distinct personalities and clothing. According to Murray, Septimus the fish is a gifted and deeply sensitive chef; Muriel is a “loud and good-natured” ewe; Monique the bee is a connoisseur of “the finer things,” and is accompanied by her partner, Laverne (also a bee); Coriander the owl is a “great listener”; Celeste is a gossip-prone but “formidable” horse; Delia is a bossy songbird who “reads to Coriander at night”; Algernon is a discerning goat; and Florian is a stamp-collecting hound.
“Murray and I are both big fans of Hayao Miyazaki,” Yang said. Miyazaki is the Japanese animater and artist who co-founded Studio Ghibli, the production company behind Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howl’s Moving Castle. “So, we’re very inspired by the fantastical world and storytelling—and imagining that objects or animals might magically begin communicating with us at night.”
25/8, and its predecessor 24/7 Gallery, are also part of a larger story about bite-sized art in Harvard Square. Down the street, the Shadowbox at One Brattle Square—curated by artist Kyoko Ono—similarly houses small-scale exhibits from artists affiliated with Gateway Arts, a nonprofit studio for adult artists with disabilities. Last spring, Gateway displayed a show at 25/8 artspace curated by Yang, entitled “fanfare of clouds” (a title drawn from Welsh poet Dylan Thomas’s “August Bank Holiday,” 1954). In Ono’s words, “These windows give opportunities for artists to connect with the public through their art. They can bring peaceful moments of joy and appreciation. They can brighten small alleys. They might [even] inspire passersby to have a go with their own creative projects. And these windows stay open all the time.” Like “Little Free Libraries,” which have also gained popularity across the country in recent years, these three miniature open art galleries expand the goals of literacy and art beyond the institutional spaces of the library or museum.
As life ebbs and flows outside 2 Linden Street, Tired Clichés invites a moment of pause. As good art does, the installation entices passersby to reflect—in this case through the simplicity of the silly. The effect is twofold. First: What? And then, inevitably: a smile—a welcome bit of warmth on the cold, winter streets of Cambridge.
