Céline Murphy
Archaeologist – Visual Artist
The past and the present, parts and wholes, creation and destruction; not so much contradictions as pairs, inextricably linked… These are the ambivalences that fuel my research. Academically qualified as an archaeologist, but also trained as an artist, I presently work at the intersection of both disciplines, expressing my thoughts and discoveries in both written and visual form.
Currently fascinated with ‘the fragment’, be it physical or conceptual, I explore its narrative value in reconstructions – or, perhaps more precisely, constructions – of the past. Through my works, consisting mainly of ceramic installations and paintings, I research different avenues for understanding breakage and decay. Another aspect of my research is the body, the broken body, the missing limb, and the idea of the body part as a token for humanness.
I believe that archaeologists and artists possess similar urges to explore and understand the world, past, present, and maybe even future. A mutual core interest (and sensitivity?) lies in the mechanisms (in my view: creativity and experiment) that people use(d) in order to learn about their surroundings and to express their identity.
Education
2011-2016 PhD, Aegean Archaeology, University of Kent, UK
2009-2010 MRes, Aegean Archaeology, University of Kent, UK
2006-2009 BA, Classics and Archaeology, University of Kent, UK
2004-2006 Qualification, Artistic Education, Ecole des Arts de Braine L’Alleud, BE
Individual Exhibitions
Abfutura – Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Heraklion GR, 11/07-28/07 2019
Interstice – Two Elephants|artworks and dwarfs, Heraklion GR, 29/03-31/03 2019
Disjecta Membra – Da, Heraklion GR, 19/10-26/10 2018
Selected Group Exhibitions
Four Elements – Underground Gallery, Sofia BG, 27/02 2019
Replica Knowledge: An Archaeology of the Multiple Past – Tieranatomisches Theater, Berlin DE, 16/09 2017-31/03 2018
From Dream to Decay –Monitor Festival, Heraklion GR, 19/10-29/10 2017
Residencies
2019 World of Co, Sofia BG
2018 The Lakkos Project, Heraklion GR
Archaeological Illustration
2019 Knossos Anetakis plot, Crete GR
2019 Kalyvia, Crete GR
2019 Alonaki, Crete GR
2013-2017 Koumasa, Crete GR
2010-2013 Philioremos, Crete GR
Céline Murphy 