Unfolding ~ Correspondent
Free, drop-in
We're delighted to present Unfolding ~ Correspondent, an ambitious exhibition and publication project curated by Katherine Murphy. The project brings together invited ‘correspondents’ - a group of artists, curators, writers, designers, and printmakers - to respond with the curator to DCA’s 2024-25 exhibition programme.
At the core of this project is an exploration of correspondence as a creative methodology and a gesture of care, connection, and community. The group of ‘correspondents’ include contributions by Amy Jones, Valerie Norris, Vivian Ross-Smith, Georgina Johnson, Dr Cat Dunn, Seán Elder, Scott Hudson and Dundee Print Collective.
Positioned between publishing and exhibition-making, Unfolding ~ Correspondent unfolds across Centrespace and in the pages of a specially commissioned publication—each activating and extending the other to create a shared space for exchange. The project considers publishing and exhibiting as interconnected practices: ways of making that foreground care, access, and the slow, deliberate labour that makes exchange meaningful. Through new commissions, collaborative reflections, and design interventions—sonic, printed, and tactile—it invites audiences to reflect on how communication, through letters, voices, and materials, can shape artistic practice, relationships, and creative exchange over time.
At the project’s heart is a series of new commissions: Amy Jones contributes a newly commissioned large-scale quilt that translates her drawn marks into fabric and stitch, a work that holds softness, resilience and strength in equal measure. . Alongside it, an unfurling performative textile installation by Vivian Ross-Smith traces a journey of letters and shared materials, forming a sculptural ‘curtain’ that carries the marks of movement and sustains an intimate dialogue between places, queer bodies, and time.
Visitors are invited to listen to two newly commissioned sonic essays by Dr Cat Dunn and Seán Elder. These essays reflect on access and equity, and the courage it takes to imagine spaces of making differently - asking who is included, who is excluded, and why.
Visitors are invited to listen to two newly commissioned sonic essays by Dr Cat Dunn and Seán Elder. These essays reflect on access and equity, and the courage it takes to imagine spaces of making differently - asking who is included, who is excluded, and why.
Printmaking runs through Unfolding ~ Correspondent as a critical and material thread. Georgina Johnson’s contribution, produced during an access-centred residency in DCA Print Studio, uses blind embossing and etched plates to reflect on radical care, disability justice, and the unseen negotiations within creative labour.
Dundee Print Collective - a group of local artists, printmakers, and creatives—presents a vibrant series of screenprints developed through ongoing dialogue with the collective’s co-leader, Scott Hudson. Each work emerges from acts of correspondence, exchange, and collaboration, offering diverse visual interpretations of the project’s central theme.
The publication, designed by artist Valerie Norris, is conceived as an artwork in its own right - an unfolding space of textures and gestures rather than a static record. Norris works closely with the invitations and materials that shaped the project, layering riso prints, experimental layouts, and intimate visual interruptions to echo the tempo and tenderness of correspondence.
The project is curated by Katherine Murphy in partnership with DCA and supported by Creative Scotland’s Open Fund for Individuals and Jerwood Arts Curatorial Accelerator (JCA)
Curator: Katherine Murphy
Katherine Murphy is a working-class feminist independent curator and arts educator based in rural Perthshire. Her practice is rooted in fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and creating inclusive, artist-focused environments that support long-term relationships within the arts community. She is committed to curatorial approaches that centre care, accessibility, and collective knowledge-sharing, working closely with artists and organisations to develop thoughtful, responsive projects.
With a background in both curation and arts education, Katherine’s work is deeply engaged with artist-led initiatives, community-building, and experimental curatorial formats. She is particularly interested in supporting artists through collaborative frameworks that prioritise sustainability and meaningful engagement.
She has worked extensively with artist-run spaces, cultural institutions, and higher education programmes; curating exhibitions, public programmes, and professional development initiatives. Katherine is currently a board member at Generator Projects, and a lecturer in Professional Practice at DJCAD in Dundee, where she develops programming that supports emerging artists in navigating the complexities of the art world.
In 2022, she curated Galalith a solo exhibition and expanded publication with Lauren Gault at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin. She has also worked with Glasgow International Festival, Rachel Maclean Studio, Parallel Lines and Scottish Contemporary Art Network. She was an Emerging Curator with British Art Network, Tate and Paul Mellon Centre (2024) and a Fellow with Jerwood Curatorial Accelerator Fellowship (2022- 2023) exploring new methodologies for access, curatorial ethics and engagement.
Her recent projects include the seminar series Curators as Community Builders: Care Towards Collaboration (2024), organised with Jenny Tipton and Polly Wright through the British Art Network's Emerging Curators Group.