The Green Room Exhibitions – Rhys Murphy.

about

“As soon as your hands left my body I was taken in by her embrace. She grabbed onto me and sunk her claws into my back and now she lives in my shadow.”

This exhibition poses the question about Shame as a being; a personification that haunts and scratches at your mind. When you go to bed at night, and you can’t sleep because you think about that moment when Shame entered your life. When you’re talking to your friends and suddenly you remember Shame looms over you. When you’re looking at your partner and suddenly in there face you can see Shame within them.

These are the moments in which Shame’s Claws explores. Shame lives within us all, a unifier that we rarely acknowledge. Shame’s Claws urges you to witness and acknowledge Shame.

“Growing up as a queer man in the digital age I was thrown into very adult worlds, trying to reach out for someone to understand me and thus they were inappropriate. This was the first moment that I felt Shame within me and my life.”

This show is an exploration of the scratches and scars from Shame. Maybe by exploring shame and letting her breathe within the work, perhaps Shame’s claws could be dulled. Maybe embracing Shame is the way to live with her. This is the essence of this exhibition.

Rhys Murphy is a multidisciplinary artist working in Belfast. As an artist, he creates video pieces that explore the intersection of fashion, identity and self-expression. His work takes an introspective approach, as he reflects on his struggles with mental health, queer trauma and body issues. His recent work has centred around the outfits that he constructs and represents different aspects of his experiences. He uses the process of sewing as a cathartic one; it allows him to escape from his struggles as he focuses on the construction, letting the fabric take his mind away.