Wendy McMurdo explained

Wendy McMurdo
Birth Place:Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality:Scottish
Field:art, contemporary fine art, photography, digital media
Training:University of Westminster
Goldsmiths, University of London
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn
Edinburgh College of Art

Wendy McMurdo (born 1962) specialises in photography and digital media. In 2018 she was named as one of the Hundred Heroines, an award created by the Royal Photographic Society to showcase global female photographic practice.[1]

Early life and education

McMurdo was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. She attended Edinburgh College of Art, Goldsmiths, University of London and Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York where she first became interested in photography.

Career

Her work centres around the relationship between technology and identity and she has produced several influential bodies of work which explore this theme.

In the mid-1990s her first one-person show In a Shaded Place – the digital and the uncanny [2] was toured extensively by the British Council. Her subsequent exhibition at the Centro de Fotografia Universidad de Salamanca in 1998 resulted in the publication of the first monograph[3] on her work. She has been included in numerous group shows, including Unheimlich, curated by Urs Stahel at the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland, Scanner, curated by Lawrence Rinder at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California, The Anagrammatical Body – The Body and its Photographic Condition at the Neue Galerie Graz am Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz, Austria, and Only Make Believe – Ways of Playing, curated by Marina Warner at Compton Verney, UK.

Her work has been commissioned by the Science Museum, London and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, and is in a number of collections including that of the Fotomuseum Winterthur, the British Council, agnès b, the National Galleries of Scotland and Seattle's Henry Art Gallery, Washington, USA. Her work has been the subject of documentaries for BBC Two, Channel 4[4] and the National Galleries of Scotland.[5]

Other commissions include Indeterminate Objects (classrooms) for The Media Wall, The Photographers' Gallery, London, October 2017 - January 2018; a site-specific project "The World in London" for The Photographers' Gallery exhibited during the 2012 Summer Olympics, and The Skater [6] for the Ffotogallery in Wales, 2009, to celebrate 30 years of photographic commissioning.

Recent exhibitions include: "Chat Room" (2019), curated by Hining Ye for the 2021 Shanghai Photofair;[7] newly commissioned work "Night Garden" as part of Florilegium curated by Emma Nicholson, the inaugural biennial exhibition marking the re-opening of Inverleith House at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh;[8] [9] [10] "On aime l’art...!!" from the Collection Lambert, in Avignon, France (2017);[11] "Gravitas", curated by Christiane Monarchi for Photo50[12] at the London Art Fair, 2017; DATA RUSH at the Old Sugar Factory in Groningen for the 22nd Noorderlicht International Photofestival; "Digital Play : Wendy McMurdo Collected Works 1995 - 2012" at Street Level Photoworks,[13] Glasgow, as part of GENERATION - 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland, a programme of exhibitions across Scotland in 2014. Her short film "Olympia" was showcased by Onedotzero as part of their Future Cities touring programme in 2011/2012. A retrospective of her photographic work was shown at the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts, University of Bath in 2011/2012.

She is a senior lecturer on the MA Photography programme at Falmouth University. In 2015, McMurdo was awarded a PhD degree by publication from the University of Westminster for her work exploring the impact of the computer on photography and identity formation.[14] She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In September 2018, McMurdo was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) as Member (Elect).[15]

Previous roles include: board member for Stills Gallery[16] (2015-2020) and New Media Scotland[17] (2011-2014); Jill Todd Photographic Award[18] specialist advisor and judge (2011-2014); Royal Society of Edinburgh[19] Young People’s Committee member (2010-2014), and Travelling Gallery[20] advisory panel member (2013-2014); external assessor for MA Photography Review, Central Saint Martins, London (2015); Senior Assessor/Lecturer for the Open College of the Arts, UK; External Validator (BA Photography) University of Chester, UK (2015); Lecturer, School of Fine Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee, UK (1990-2002) and Lecturer, School of Fine Art, Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh UK (1985-1897).

Awards

Publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. http://www.rps100heroines.org/featured/100heroines-announcement/ Hundred Heroines, The Royal Photographic Society, 2018
  2. Thompson, J. (1996). "Magical Mystories: Wendy McMurdo at the Site Gallery" mute, Issue 3. Retrieved 16 October 2008.
  3. Book: Wendy McMurdo. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca - Centro de Fotografia Universidad de Salamanca. 1998. 2000.
  4. "The Mix: Express Yourself. Programme 2: Wendy McMurdo – Photographic dreamscapes," Channel 4. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
  5. "Wendy McMurdo – The Digital Mirror," National Galleries of Scotland. Retrieved 25 March 2018
  6. Book: Wendy McMurdo: The Skater. Ffotogallery Wales. 2009.
  7. Web site: Behind the Scenes: Insights curator Yining He . Photofairs . 13 March 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211208231546/https://www.photofairs.org/news/behind-scenes-insights-curator-yining-he . December 8, 2021 . en.
  8. News: Florilegium: A Gathering of Flowers — from the seeds of flowers came growth . www.thetimes.co.uk . 30 December 2021. Davies. Ashley.
  9. Web site: Art review: Florilegium: A Gathering of Flowers, Inverleith House, Edinburgh . www.scotsman.com . 30 December 2021.
  10. Web site: Inverleith House reopens in full bloom with 'Florilegium: A Gathering of Flowers' | News & Press | Scottish Art News | Fleming collection . www.flemingcollection.com . 30 December 2021.
  11. Web site: Collection Lambert . collectionlambert.com . 30 December 2021.
  12. https://www.londonartfair.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/London-Art-Fair-2017-Photo50-Gravitas-artists-announced.pdf Gravitas, Photo50, London Art Fair 2017
  13. http://www.streetlevelphotoworks.org/mediaLibrary/other/english/1548.pdf Hopkins, D. (2014). Digital Play Wendy McMurdo Collected Works 1995-2012
  14. "Children and computers : collected works (1995-2014)," British Library EThOs e-theses online service. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  15. https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/members/wendy-mcmurdo/ Wendy McMurdo RSA (Elect), The Royal Scottish Academy, 26/09/2018
  16. Web site: Stills centre for photography based in the heart of Edinburgh . stills.org . 13 March 2023 . en.
  17. Web site: New Media Scotland . mediascot.org . 13 March 2023.
  18. Web site: Jill Todd Photographic Award . jilltoddphotoaward.com . 13 March 2023.
  19. Web site: Royal Society of Edinburgh . rse.org.uk . 13 March 2023.
  20. Web site: Travelling Gallery . travellinggallery.com . 13 March 2023.
  21. Book: David. Brittain. Creative Camera: Thirty Years of Writing. 1999. Manchester University Press. 978-0-7190-5805-9. Google Books.
  22. Web site: Digitally Yours; The Body in Contemporary Photography . 2023-11-05 . University of the Arts London.

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