“Embracing radical forms of care is one way which as a curator I can create the conditions for wellness within the curatorial. The heart of challenging the exploitative, inherently capitalist practices in contemporary art is, in my opinion, linked to hyper-productivity. Within contemporary art production, and the curatorial in particular, I feel there is an incredible amount of invisible labour; from the active, unpaid, and often public networking and research roles that have come to be expected of curators, the pastoral care given to artists, or the more menial, domestic-style duties taken on as part of care for exhibition spaces or exhibition audiences. These forms of care are rarely acknowledged or valued, and are often undertaken at a personal cost; physical, mental, and financial. These acts of care for others at the expense of the self I believe is a key cause of the sickness within the sector that leads to burn-out. With my manifesto for a thriving feminist curatorial practice I set out very clearly this intention and begin to address contributing factors to the endemic overwork I have experienced and witnessed amongst curators.”
With a background in contemporary art and philosophy Katherine has a passion for developing expanded forms of feminist practices through a process of unfolding. For the past decade she has worked with artist-run spaces and organisations, prominent artists, art institutions, museums, and international art festivals.
Murphy’s Unfolding Project 2021 works closely with, and learns from artists to manifest a feminist, independent, sustainable curatorial practice to develop projects and realise exhibitions. ‘Unfolding’ is a framework and her curatorial approach; to unfold is to ‘gradually open out from a folded position’, a process by which something develops and becomes revealed. Her most recent project is guest curating a solo exhibition and project Galalith with artist Lauren Gault at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios in Dublin.
