Curtsying out of 2023 into a New Year …
I updated my website yesterday, on the last day of 2023. There’s still a bit to add, but it feels positive to have started the new year with at least some of the updates in place. It always feels good to get my work out of the studio and visible in the outside world, especially to new places for me this year – in the Channel Islands at ArtHouse, Jersey and in Athens, Greece via the brilliant H-M-S Projects. I’m grateful for the opportunities that have come my way this year, thanks particularly to hardworking curators/producers Rosalind Davis, Laura Hudson and Luke Merryweather.
I made a new piece of work for the group show in Athens but otherwise, ‘Sweet Nothings’ and 10×10 were work from the past Here’s a link to the NEWS page on my website if you’re interested in reading more about where the work’s been shown in 2023:
www.katemurdochartist.com/news
I’ve managed to hang onto my Creekside, Deptford studio for now, but moving – or rather, being forced out – is still on the horizon. I’ve spent a lot of time fantasising about there being some sort of glitch in the planning process that throws up a clause, stipulating that the 70 or so artists involved in this latest cull are allowed to stay there. It’s highly unlikely that this will happen, of course, and so March looks set to see us moving on – hopefully to another space in the local area.
There’s no doubt that the ongoing uncertainty has been disruptive and affected my work output. But my resolution for 2024, though very hard to do, is to be more accepting of what’s on the cards. That said, this will be the third time that I’ve been forced to make a studio move because of property developers taking over prime locations in the Deptford/New Cross area in SE London. It’s an absolute travesty that the current building, a beautiful Art Deco building housing some 70+ artists, is to be reduced to rubble to make way for yet another block of soulless, high priced flats. But there we have it – there’s little any of us can do to prevent this happening. For now, it’s a waiting game – hoping that the promise of alternative accommodation will come through for us and we can regroup as a community of artists. Another regular fantasy of mine is to imagine having a studio space on a permanent/for life basis. Imagine just how brilliant that would be!
