Charlie Murphy is an artist currently based in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, UK, whose work includes

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syste ...

and participatory events. Her work has been presented at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

2005, the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

2006, and in galleries and museums including

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

2007, London’s

Science Museum A science museum is a museum devoted primarily to science. Older science museums tended to concentrate on static displays of objects related to natural history, paleontology, geology, industry and industrial machinery, etc. Modern trends in mu ...

and The Science Gallery, Dublin. She is based at ACAVA Studios in London and has been an ArtSway Artist Associate since 2003.

Life

She graduated from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

, with an MA in Fine Art (Photography) in 1999. She is best known for her work exploring intimacy, sexuality, and the competitive aspects of human nature. Through photographic, performative, and sculptural processes, video, installations, and live art events, several contexts in which a variety of people are invited to perform are created. Murphy's catalog of artistic works encompasses sensual and territorial behaviors, including the rituals and customs of rural and domestic life. Recurrent materials in her practice include glass, light,

fibre-optics An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a means t ...

, photographic papers and

emulsions An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liquids that are normally immiscible (unmixable or unblendable) owing to liquid-liquid phase separation. Emulsions are part of a more general class of two-phase systems of matter called colloids. Althoug ...

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

and

ribbons A ribbon or riband is a thin band of material, typically cloth but also plastic or sometimes metal, used primarily as decorative binding and tying. Cloth ribbons are made of natural materials such as silk, cotton, and jute and of synthetic mate ...

. Certain aspects of her practice involve the participation of a large number of people. Murphy lectures in photography at

Kingston University , mottoeng = "Through Learning We Progress" , established = – gained University Status – Kingston Technical Institute , type = Public , endowment = £2.3 m (2015) , ...

, th
University of Gloucester
,

the Arts University College at Bournemouth Arts University Bournemouth (abbreviated AUB) is a further and higher education university based in Poole, England, specialising in art, performance, design, and media. It was formerly known as The Arts University College at Bournemouth and The ...

, and the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

Works

*''The Anatomy of Desire'' (1999–2010) *Kiss-ins: Since 1999, Charlie Murphy has collected kisses from all over the world by asking participants to donate their kisses to her trademark ‘kiss-in’ events. Murphy and her assistants invite couples, friends, and strangers to kiss for 90 seconds while a dental

alginate Alginic acid, also called algin, is a naturally occurring, edible polysaccharide found in brown algae. It is hydrophilic and forms a viscous gum when hydrated. With metals such as sodium and calcium, its salts are known as alginates. Its colou ...

sets in their mouths. These casts are then turned into glass sculptures through a series of positive and negative mold-making processes. The ''kiss-in'' events toured a number of both national and international venues. **kiss Video (99–09): a video portrait created from documentation of these events *''The Art of Tickling Trout and Other Sensual Pleasures'' (2003) *Country Dancing on the Circle Line (2004) *''Cut Glass & Plant Harlotry photogram series'' (2004-ongoing) - referencing early 'photogenic' drawings by

Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later ...

and ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' *Seaside Sheep Show (2006), produced in collaboration with Aspex Gallery,

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

*Opening (2006): a performance and sculptural installation for ''Sugarcoated'' at Artsway (2006) *Salute (2006–9) is an ongoing performance work for tall ships, involving maritime training, aerial and dance choreography, and a long-term research and training project in flying trapeze. *The Big Wheel (2008) is a live cartwheel chain event performed on London’s

Millennium Bridge Several bridges are known as the Millennium Bridge: * in the United Kingdom **Gateshead Millennium Bridge ** Lune Millennium Bridge, Lancaster ** Millennium Bridge, Glasgow ** Millennium Bridge, London ** Millennium Bridge (Salford Quays) ** Teesqua ...

by over 150 participants for The Mayor’s Big Dance Festival. The longest-ever acrobatic chain to be staged in London, this was created in collaboration with several gymnastic clubs and hosted by

. *''Linnaeus'' is a series of glass sculptures on plant sexuality within the botanical collections of The Museum of Garden History and The Linnaean Society, interpreting an illustration of Linnaeus’s ‘Sexual System’ by ‘ Ehret’ from 1736.

Collections

Her works are held by Hayley Newman,

; The Linnaean Society, London; the University of Aberystwth; Danielle Arnaud, London; and

Vic Reeves James Roderick Moir (born 24 January 1959), better known by his stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, artist, surrealist, musician, actor and television presenter, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer as Reeves & Mortimer. ...

Publications

*''The Anatomy of Desire'', published by text work,

, 2010. Includes essays by

Luce Irigaray Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...

, Leonore Tiefer and Alistair Gentry. *''Plant Harlotry'', booklet published to accompany an exhibition at Dissenters' Chapel, 2007 *''Sugarcoated'', ArtSway, 2006, *''The Art of Tickling Trout and Other Sensual Pleasures'', ArtSway, with essay by Kathy Kubicki, 2003, *''Rosette Contribution to Fash’n’Riot'', Artist Limited Edition publication toured in

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

exhibition, 2002 & 2004 *''The Glass Border'', exhibition catalogue, Danielle Arnaud Gallery, London, 1999 *''Light Sensitive'', York City Art Gallery, 1998 *''Everyone In Farnham'',

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a centre for cinema and the contemporary visual arts, located next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, which was active from 1985–2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a booksho ...

& James Hockey Gallery, Farnham 1994

References

External links

*
Kensal Green past exhibitions

Charlie Murphy at Plymouth Arts CentreThe Guardian online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy, Charlie Living people British women artists Alumni of the Royal College of Art Academics of the University of East Anglia British contemporary artists Year of birth missing (living people) Academics of Arts University Bournemouth