‘Ingrid Murphy’s interactive practice melds new technologies and appropriated artefacts with traditional ceramic processes, offering a multi-layered, sensory experience of crafted objects that explore themes personal and universal, global and local. In doing so, her work accentuates human connectivity, revealing the socially and culturally charged narratives of ceramic objects.’
Catherine Roche, Writer
Ingrid’s work is playful, it is fun and it is surprising. More than this, it invites us to interact with it in ways that we’re unused to with ceramics. It’s not functional in the familiar sense that a jug, plate or wash basin might be, but it is designed to function. Ingrid’s work engages us on sensorial and cerebral levels, prodding us to join in its investigations.
An extension of her curious mind, Ingrid’s ceramic practice uses numerous creative avenues to channel her investigations. Investigations into the material qualities of clay, into the aesthetics of ceramic and into the versatility of this medium as a vehicle for new technologies and for communication. Communication is central to her work and, thus, Ingrid is a great collaborator.
Conversation and shared learning are important to her. Working in an academic environment, and at the forefront of creative research, Ingrid naturally draws others into her work. Long-term collaboration with colleague Jon Pigott has brought Ingrid beyond the black box of technology, their shared creative vision helping to interweave their disparate skills. Working with fellow researchers at FabLab Cardiff expands and enriches Ingrid’s explorations in scanning, 3D printing, Augmented and Virtual Reality, as well as physical computing. Hers is a practice that is continually developing and moving. Finding a solution to one challenge raises questions that lead her to the next.
Denbighshire
24 November 2018 - 27 January 2019
Swansea
02 February - 23 March 2019
Cwmbran
30 March – 18 May 2019
Aberystwyth
22 May - 13 July 2019
Ruthin Craft Centre
Mission Gallery
Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre
A poetic response by Mererid Hopwood
Ac yn awr
yn ein tai o glai
goleuwn ganhwyllau ar allorau oer.
Wedi’r awr waith,
cawn groesi’r hen drothwy -
y gorwel rhwng sŵn a thawelwch.
Cawn ddiosg y sgidiau baw a’r sachell
a gadael i gellwair fflach y fflam
ein tynnu’n nes, gam wrth gam.
Cipiwn yn ôl i’n cwpan aur
eiliad gatholig
y dod ynghyd,
â sêr ar y rhimyn,
yng ngheg y nos
mae blas serameg.
‘Ymdawelwn’,
meddai’r llwch wrth y llwch.
Ingrid’s studio practice and academic ventures are tightly bound. Connectivity is a key motivation for Ingrid and this inter-relationship between teaching and research roles and making in her studio is synonymous with how she operates on a daily basis. Explorations in university research projects feed into her teaching, advisory roles feed into her own making; and vice versa. Ingrid’s creative practice is holistic and all-encompassing, no new knowledge is wasted and no questions go uninvestigated.
It is no wonder then, that Ingrid is currently the Academic Lead for Transdisciplinarity at Cardiff School of Art & Design. Here, she previously ran the ceramic department until 2013 and the Maker department until 2017, a department that she initiated and established and which has a rich focus on materiality and skills-base. Ingrid also leads the University’s newly formed Fab-Cre8 centre for applied research in digital fabrication processes.
In 2015 Ingrid was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship for her contribution to art and design education.
Ingrid divides her time between her home and studio in Wales and her studio in South West France. In her ceramic making, she utillises traditional as well as digital processes to create interactive artifacts. Some of her work is conceived or realised in close collaboration with specialist colleagues, creatives that augment Ingrid’s explorations. Ingrid will often use found objects in her pieces as well as integrating technological components. Mould-making and casting are key processes in her practice, usually with bone china. Crisp white forms with gold lustre detail are currently characteristic of her ceramic compositions. Such detail is often functional, such as to close an electrical circuit.
Born in Ireland in 1969, Ingrid studied at Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork before undergraduate and MA study at Cardiff School of Art and Design. She presents papers at international events around the world, including at NCECA conferences in the U.S., Making Futures, UK and at the Indian Ceramic Triennale in Jaipur.
Ingrid’s work is also featured in Breaking Ground 2018, the first iteration of India’s Ceramic Triennale, at Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK). Other, previous exhibitions have included the British Ceramic Biennial Award Show, Sensorial Object at Craft in the Bay in Cardiff, and Centred, Ceramics Ireland Selected Show.
