Alexandra Murray

In an effort to explore her personal history, Alexandra Murray has spent the past few years of her University career creating artwork about an extended family she used to feel wholly disconnected from. Growing up away from Scotland, her family's relationships sometimes seemed strained, stretched thin over the miles and hours between them- The process of making sculptures and installations exploring these difficult feelings has not just been cathartic for her, but allowed her to connect to her relatives in a way that would have seemed impossible just a few short years ago. 

This project has been no different, with Murray's artwork focussing on her late Grandfather, his woodwork, and his writing. With a wardrobe made not only as a nod to how family histories are often shoved away into the backs of closets, never to been seen again, the wolf-shaped piece was also created as gift for him, the way he made a wooden sled for her as a little girl. Filled with fishing lures, just like he used to make, the installation as a whole acts as a desperate cry for finding the truth of the past, a fact which Murray's short film compounds- Using her Father's voice, the artists describes how we all throw out lines and hope they snag a story or memory that will bring us closer to the people we came from. Whether your family is close, or continents apart, we can all relate to the feeling of not quite knowing where we've come from.