Katherine Murphy

KATHERINE MURPHY Born 1976, United Kingdom

Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art Breeder, 2012

“Katherine was one of the few finds directly from a degree show, in this case from Slade. Her presentation was in a small room under the roof up a revolving staircase next to which hung a typewriter drawing that was too long to fit. The room itself was filled with stacks of old fashioned library cards that Katherine simply liked, had kept and consecutively used in several projects.

Having experienced a variety of minimum wage jobs before she decided to turn it into art, makes Katherine’s oeuvre very convincing. The tasks she sets herself are always achingly physical, even boring; the works (literally!) she allows to leave the studio are nonetheless conceptually and formally composed and surprisingly beautiful.�

(Patrick Heide)

Work Graphite on paper 112 x 112 cm 2010 Private Collection, USA

Bus Typewriter on paper 163 x 36 cm 2010 Private Collection, France

Bus (detail)

Katherine Murphy‘s conceptual works circle around the themes of everyday labour and their repetitive, dehumanizing tasks. She uses recording and repetition to reveal work patterns contextually as well as visually.

In her “CV series” Murphy charts everyday professional tasks as type written biographies, a highly repetitive task by itself.

CV: Picker Packer Typewriter on paper 84 x 47 cm 2014 Private Collection, France

CV: Data Entry Typewriter ink & paper 84 x 45 cm 2014 £ 2,600.00 plus VAT, incl. frame

CV: Victoria (updated) Typewriter ink & paper 73 x 47 cm 2014 £ 2,600.00 plus VAT, incl. frame

CV: Refuse Collector Typewriter ink & paper 54 x 47 cm 2014 £ 2,200.00 plus VAT, incl. frame

CV: Refuse Collector (detail)

Katherine Murphy investigates aspects of labour and the conditions under which specific acts of labour are carried out: from the uniformity of daily routines to the monotonous activities of factory or minimum wage workers.

Murphy’s oeuvre is physically and topically tough, yet formally stringent and visually appealing, often possessing a discreet and elegant beauty. In her ongoing series entitled Arkwright Work Tasks, Murphy employs the typewriter aesthetic of old-fashioned library cards in nostalgically fading colour tones, which the artist re-sorts for days and weeks according to ever changing categories. The filing tasks can be anything from alphabetical to filing by number of characters in first word.

Murphy’s oeuvre successfully merges the dry and politically charged subject of low wage labour with a minimal language without weakening the one or the other. Her message is revealed moderately yet powerfully – the contradictory “disguises” her works appear in develop even more weight in times of rising unemployment and radically changing work environments.

Arkwright Work Task: Filing (alphabetically) Pen on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 83 x 63 cm 2016 £ 2,800.00 plus VAT, incl. frame

Arkwright Work Task - Filing (by no. of characters in the first word) Pen on HahnemuĚˆhle Photo Rag 84 x 63 cm Private Collection, Germany

Arkwright Work Task: Filing (by No. of consonants in first line) Pen on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag 83 x 63 cm 2016 ÂŁ 2,600.00 plus VAT

Arkwright Work Task: Filing (by No. of consonants in first line) - detail

The series Labour + Repetition = Decay is exemplary for Murphy’s paradoxical oeuvre: a repetitive, even absurd work task, folding and refolding a sheet of paper hundreds of times over and over again, results in a sensual and elegant work of art.

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#4) Folded paper 84 x 60 cm 2016 ÂŁ 2,600.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#7) Folded paper 60 x 60 cm 2015 ÂŁ 2,400.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#14) Folded paper 30 x 22 cm 2017 ÂŁ 1,000.00 plus VAT (unframed)

“Water running over stone will, over time, wear a path, though water is no match for stone in terms of durability, it plays the long game, and little by little the repetitious act of the moving water molecules breaks down the stone, creates decay, forms a path of least resistance, forms a river. When one considers the daily tasks of the minimum wage worker, comparisons can be drawn; placing a leaflet in a magazine, placing a leaflet in a magazine, placing a leaflet in a magazine, over a hundred an hour, every hour, replacing size 22 label with size 12, replacing size 22 label with size 12, replacing size 22 label with size 12, over a hundred an hour, every hour, answering directory enquiry calls, answering directory enquiry calls, answering directory enquiry calls, over a hundred an hour, every hour, washing egg and bacon debris off a plate, washing egg and bacon debris off a plate, washing egg and bacon debris off a plate, over a hundred an hour, every hour.

The human side of the story, which we all invest so much in, erases the memories of the work, though engaging us in important ways, providing the balm for the cuts of work, were I to add. Hence, when I discuss the world of work and labour, I concentrate not on the human story but on the work and its effects, the universality of the experience of exchanging labour for wage. I am not an artist because of these experiences rather I am an artist despite them.�

(Katherine Murphy)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#15) Folded paper 84 x 60 cm 2019 ÂŁ 2,600.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#19) Folded paper 30 x 22 cm 2018 ÂŁ 1,000.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#21) Folded paper 30 x 22 cm 2018 ÂŁ 1,000.00 plus VAT (unframed)

“I have always used labour as a material in my work; to fulfil and thus expose alienating work tasks, to explore a work system, to discuss value given to different workers time. Often it is my repeated labour that creates the work, shown in the expanse on a support of paper, one is confronted with the minutiae of daily repeated labours and the vast extent of six months work, becoming a visceral viewing experience. I have used repetitious labour as a material, most often not spread across the medium to view its extent rather it is repeated in place, in this way I create and utilise a new material, that of decay. Some of the works are comprised simply of labour and paper; the paper is the support for the labour, exposing the decay. Decay speaks to the experience of such work acts on the human body, the human psyche.�

(Katherine Murphy)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#18) Folded paper 84 x 60 cm 2019 ÂŁ 2,600.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#17) Folded paper 30 x 22 cm 2017 ÂŁ 1,000.00 plus VAT (unframed)

Labour + Repetition = Decay (#17) - detail

Installation view at Patrick Heide Contemporary Art Here and Again, 2010

KATHERINE MURPHY Born 1976. Lives and works in London, UK Education 2007-09 2007 2003-06 1994-97

Master of Fine Art; Fine Art Media, The Slade School of Fine Art Awarded AHRC Postgraduate Professional Preparation Masters scheme award for the total period of the MFA BA Fine Art (1st Class Honours), Swansea Institute, Swansea BA Drama and Classical Studies, St. Mary’s University, Twickenham

Selected Exhibitions 2018-19 2017 2016 2014 2012 2011-10 2010 2009 2008 2006 2005 2004

Intensity, Garden Room, House of St. Barnabas, London Ten Years, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London 'Decay', Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London ‘Income’s Outcome (part four)’, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London 'text(ure)', Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London 'Breeder’, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Jerwood Drawing Prize 2010, National Tour (Shortlisted for Drawing Prize) 'Here and again', Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London Slade MFA Degree Show, Slade School of Fine Art, London Hull Print Project, Primary Health Care Centre, Hull Interim Show, Woburn Research Centre, London The Body Project, Woburn Research Centre, London KunstVlaai A.P.I., Westergasfabriek, Netherlands 'Proof' Degree Show, Dynevor Centre for Art and Design, Swansea Citywide, Swansea 'Titled', Mission Gallery, Swansea 'Artists Rolls', Mission Gallery, Swansea 'Difference', Swansea Institute, Swansea 'Verdi's', Verdi's Café, Swansea 'Art D’œuvres', Pontardawe Arts Centre, Pontardawe