Y el barro se hizo eterno (...and the Mud became Eternal)

Public Programme #13 : Kate Morrell

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2010 Kate Morrell has worked with archives, collections and libraries to develop projects that identify and respond to under-researched or overlooked histories. This work questions the conventional logics that serve and organise collections. By doing this, it invites critical re-readings of the hierarchies and structures of power which are given voice in their presentation.

With a background in artist bookmaking, her practice is situated in the expanded field of publishing. She works primarily with print media – with sculpture, drawing and video as extensions of that.

Projects include: documenting illicit, private collections of pre-Columbian ceramics, displayed within the domestic space; research within the Jacquetta Hawkes Archive at the University of Bradford on the life and work of the British archaeologist, Hawkes (1910-1996), whose work was marginalised by a male dominated research community, and a residency at a remote Swiss library, residing alongside ‘shelving robots’ in this innovative futuristic archive.

In 2021 a new video work ‘…Y el barro se hizo eterno (...And the Mud Became Eternal)’ was central to a solo show at Chelsea Space, London. The video is a result of research within archaeological collections and archives in Bogotá, Colombia. Subsequently, she was invited to screen the work within the 'Living Area' of the collections at Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich in 2022.

The event is open to all but please register via the link above.

The Archaeology-Heritage-Art Research Network examines the varied ways in which archaeology, heritage and art converge across a broad range of concepts and practices, from artistic interventions in the museum space to archaeological interpretations which deploy and take inspiration from contemporary art.

The AHA 2022 PROGRAMME: INTERDISCIPLINARY METHODOLOGIES is supported with a grant from the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies.