Cut From The Skin

Keith Micheal Murphy, MFA 2022, Sculpture

As an interdisciplinary artist I work between jewelry, printmaking, photography, and ceramics. My work begins at the opposition of minimalism’s relationship with white supremacy. I create armor inspired jewelry that protects cultural identity and sense of self. By using ornamentation the work is imbued with histories of culture and celebrations of beauty. Positioning the pieces in reference to armor and weapons reorients the viewer to thinking about ornamentation as something worth fighting for as opposed to a movement innocently going out of trend.

Drawing inspiration from the world around me I find the ornamentation in the wrought iron of New Orleans, the old masonry of Philadelphia, or the appliqué designs on drag queen’s garments. These patterns and elements are then explored through different means of adornment. While most pieces are elevated and celebrated as brooches or bent and shaped as cuffs, I also explore adornment as something that can be printed on the body and then documented through photography.