As a maker, I am motivated by this spectrum of possibility, which offers a potent metaphor in our contemporary moment. The freedom of the internet, which in spirit is democratic, is also a site where Fake News, vitriol, and uninhibited bigotry abound. Are these qualities now as “American as apple pie?” The contradictions inherent in the very nature of the digital age parallel the conundrum of American democracy, which began as a far from equal enterprise. I use my work to hold the tensions of the present up to the idealized past, specifically the era of the Founding Fathers, in an attempt to reclaim the virtues written into historical documents and imbued within cultural iconography. In their original forms, such texts and symbols make harmful assumptions about identity which only perpetuates the privilege of certain people. Through both digital and analog manipulation, as well as the mediation of machines such as 3D printers, my work endeavors to interpolate existing and well-known national iconography to expose the fault lines of the American myth.

My work is a result of interdisciplinary material exploration grounded in extensive historical, anthropological, and sociological research. A deep appreciation for craft is paralleled by an intrinsic desire for tinkering, a tenuous relationship that in a digital world offers vast opportunities for commentary on contemporary social, political, and cultural circumstances. The democratization of technology through open-sourcing, made possible by the growing pervasiveness of the internet, produces a vast range of applications that challenge notions of freedom and accessibility. For example, file sharing and the use of 3D printers have enabled the creation of affordable prosthetics for children in developing countries. The same combination of resources has also been the harbinger of 3D printed guns. In short, the effects of the accessibility of these technologies are yet to be fully realized. The combination of digital modes of making with ceramics, a material that is inherently reclaimable, allows for flexibility with experimentation and production unparalleled by other materials.

Bio: Bri Murphy grew up in the green mountains of Vermont, where she began her career as an artist selling her drawings to her mom for 25¢ apiece. Her work is interdisciplinary, combining digital technologies such as 3D printing with more traditional materials, influenced by her background in ceramics. She is the former Gallery Director of the LUX Center for the Arts in Lincoln, Nebraska, where she began as an Artist-in-Residence in 2013. Murphy holds a Master's degree in Ceramics from Ohio University and Bachelor’s degrees in Ceramics and Art Education from SUNY New Paltz in New York.