Stuart Murphy: Coffin Ships & Cholera Pits

Stuart Murphy mainly works in drawing, assemblage, sculpture, collage, painting, and text, with the majority of materials being either inexpensive, free, re-purposed or salvaged. Initially due to cost restraints, this low budget use of materials has now become a staple and important aspect of the work.

"The focus of my work is history from below and fringe cultures from which a motley crew of themes has evolved - pirates, peasants, vagrants, bandits, and heretics, as well as minstrelsy, the carnival, and Commedia dell'arte theatre. Alongside symbolism and iconography, many individuals, communities and movements occur throughout my research and practice, from both political and religious spheres, which I feel are deserving of wider exposure.

This below perspective interest grew from creating a project centred around the Black Death (1347-51), and the societal upheaval its death toll caused for people in everyday life. This included the rise of religious orders, in particular the Flagellants with their ritualistic self-flagellation for penance and distinct attire. A common sight during the Black Death, the Flagellants would venture on pilgrimages across Europe, drawing attention from townsfolk with their chanting, striking white capirotes and gowns, and their bloodied ceremonies. Each flagellant would then fall to the ground and assume a specific position depending on their sin. Afterwards the townsfolk would then gather round and dip a piece of cloth into a flagellant's wounds as a relic keepsake.

My re-purposing of materials is reflected in the themes I explore, such as the Strasbourg dancing plague of 1518, where makeshift platforms (by order of local councillors) allowed victims to dance the hysteria out their system as no medical advice of the time seemed beneficial. In agriculture, the iconic scarecrow is traditionally created by re-purposing whatever is available. In Commedia dell'arte theatre, the Harlequin would perform in their famous patchwork clothing, traditionally made from whatever scraps of material were at hand, indicating their social standing and poverty.

I often use newsprint for collage, in a ripped and torn random fashion. It becomes permanent as part of the work in contrast to its usual brief life span as a form of information. The cut-up, ripped and torn use of newsprint also comments on how words and meaning are fluid and not fixed with regards to interpretation and translation. Written text appears on my large and small scale drawings and collages, sometimes providing context to the work, but also referencing other work or unrelated ideas.

I usually show the work unframed, initially due to cost, but now as a preferred method of display which lends itself to the raw makeshift aesthetic. The simple pinning up of the work reflects a declaration, doctrine or manifesto. The practicality of rolling up large scale works, transporting them on foot to a space, and unscrolling them to display, gives a subtle nod to both the vagabond and the seafarer's map.

I use exaggeration in my work, notably enlarged facial features, hands and feet, as well as abnormalities, defects and physical symptoms such as big black boils of bubonic plague, enlarged black hands and feet of septicemic plague victims, the elongated beak of the plague doctor, and oversized conical hats of the heretics and the Flagellants. Exaggeration is also reflected in the the over-indulgent eating, drinking, dancing, sex and festival laughter of the medieval carnival, and the elaborate colourful costumes and masks of the stock characters in the Commedia dell'artre.

Lockdown has postponed a couple of planned exhibitions and cancelled another, but has allowed me time to reflect on the work I've already made and provided more time to create for the rescheduled exhibitions. For an upcoming exhibition at The Pharmacy in Carlisle, I will be producing work centred around social banditry and a local connection with the Border Reivers. The Reivers were clans of raiding parties operating on either side of the border (sometimes further afield) between the 13th century and the Union of the Crowns in 1603, with members of the various clans being publicly hanged, drowned or excommunicated by order of King James I.

I also have a planned exhibition titled 'Coffin Ships & Cholera Pits' in my home town of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire. With the ship a central image, the exhibition will focus on the transportation of people during the slave trade, the Irish Famine and the Clearances. I also plan to include local history to the exhibition, specifically the unmarked cholera pits in nearby towns, remnants of the UK wide cholera epidemic of the 1830s and 1840s in which Ayrshire had one of the worst outbreaks. Connecting both themes, the universal quarantine flag for shipping (chequered black and yellow) would be a fitting symbol for the exhibition. 'Coffin' ships were so-called due to the amount of people who died (mostly from typhus and cholera) on board these vessels transporting families (who could afford to) affected by the Famine and Clearances, across the Atlantic to America.

A body of work I started to make prior to lockdown, initially for an exhibition in Helensburgh titled 'The Stu-seum Of Jocularity: Grotesque Realism, Innocent Fools & A World Turned Inside Out', is centred around the history of the carnival, minstrelsy and Commedia dell'arte theatre. For this exhibition, I was interested in the history of laughter, forbidden humour in official medieval culture, language of the market place, lolling, cursing, role-reversal, profanities and indulgence, the carnival as an idea of 'freedom', or a safety valve promoted by authority."

You can see more of Stuart's work on his website, or connect with him on Instagram.

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