The Kitchen Table

I first went to talk to Mike and Deirdre McCrory and their daughter Cara Murphy about ‘Silver Connections’ back in March 2004. I joined a family gathering, including Cara’s husband Chris, around the kitchen table. Having been asked to curate this exhibition, I was not quite clear what was expected of me, and was even a little uncomfortable with the title of curator. However I soon found myself facilitating a vigorous discussion about the whys and wherefores of this major project. All I had to do was listen, question, reflect back what I was hearing, and on occasion challenge the thinking. This was what I could bring to this family of designer/makers who were articulate about what they were doing and why.

The exhibition meant something different for each of them. For Cara it was an opportunity to develop a significant body of work that would have impact. Mike wanted the challenge to extend his creativity by making a new body of work. Deirdre wished to create a dialogue. Chris’s part would be to develop a catalogue to document this endeavour and any other material necessary to communicate the creative process beyond the actual work. (This was in addition to his other significant role as technical support to Mike, while he learned and mastered the Cinema 4D software.)

These discussions determined the direction of the exhibition and I realised that this was a rare glimpse into the artistic machinations of this family. I felt privileged and proud that I had been entrusted with this role. From this first meeting I began to understand the importance of the kitchen table.

I first met Mike McCrory in 1980. At the time I was a foundation art student and I had taken myself to the Ulster Museum for a day of drawing. As it happened Mike had brought his second year silversmithing and jewellery students to draw at the Museum and he kindly invited me to join this group for their weekly drawing activities. I got to know Deirdre in the eighties through the activities of the ‘Guild of Designer Craftsmen of Northern Ireland’ – known as the Guild to its members. The Guild, to which both Mike and Deirdre belonged, was a forerunner to Craftworks in Belfast. Indeed, Mike played a significant role on the Guild committee, negotiating with LEDU (Local Enterprise Development Unit) for the establishment of Craftworks in 1989.

I first saw Cara’s work in Dublin in1993 when I was part of a selection panel for a Crafts Council of Ireland exhibition entitled ‘10 Jewellers – Alternative Jewellery in Precious Metals’.

Mike, Deirdre and Cara also showed their work at Designyard – the Contemporary Applied Arts Centre in Dublin’s Temple Bar – and at The Crafts Council at Designyard in a wide range of exhibitions over the following years, as well as receiving various commissions via Designyard’s Commissioning Gallery. It was during this period that I began to appreciate the importance of this family to the applied arts in Ireland, as educationalists, artists, activists and innovators.

As Chief Executive of Designyard, my experience of managing an organisational alliance led to a personal discovery. I found I was more intrigued and challenged by the human dynamics going on within organisational change, than by the prime objectives of the organisation. When I awoke to this fact I spent the following year researching my options for further study, prepared Designyard for my departure, and in May 2000 left to study Organisational Development and Change (including group dynamics) at the Tavistock Institute, London. You may well be asking what bearing this has on the exhibition and the work of the three artists. The connection for me is simple. The exhibits are undoubtedly of the utmost importance: for the artist the primary task is to create the object, and for the viewer the work creates interest, intrigue, debate, awe, and a desire for ownership. Our artistic culture and future history would be poorer without the works themselves. However, it is beyond these objects that my true fascination lies. I want to know more about how the interactions within the close proximity of the family unit shapes the work and acts as a crucible out of which the work has emerged.

So, how does this family manage their interactions when involved in the making process? When I ask about this, it is very clear for each of them. “We are observing – watching what each other is doing – there is always dialogue between us about each other’s work,” says Cara. Mike states: “The worst thing for a craftsperson working on their own is having no one to talk to about the work.” As we sit around the kitchen table having this discussion, I discover that this is often where these exchanges take place. Sometimes it is a simple question that is asked: “Why are you doing it that way?” Cara says, “You are never not challenged … you are always on your toes, always pushing yourself further.” There are clear benefits for the work: “If you have to articulate specific things about the work, it helps create distance to it … it can be appraisal, or confirmation. You may not like what the other says, but it makes you think.” They are keen to emphasise that this process is not ‘a soft option’ – on occasions very direct and blunt opinions about the work are proffered. “Through the dialogue, decisions are made in one’s own mind.”

Cara and Mike are happy to work at their respective benches with barely twelve inches of physical space between them. Though to some this might sound like an unnecessarily challenging and close environment in which to work, Cara divides her time between her silversmithing practice and is part of the teaching team on both the Masters of Applied Arts and the BA (Hons) Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Ulster, Belfast. Deirdre notes that Cara has brought new influences into the family from this teaching role and also from her membership of the Association of British Designer Silversmiths on which she is a committee member. For Deirdre, reflective time is critical to assimilate and process the interactions around her work. In addition to her own drawing and enamelling studio she also works at Seacourt Print Workshop and the journey from studio to workshop provides this reflective space.

When I ask Mike, Deirdre and Cara each for a word to describe the family in relation to their work context, they offer ‘close knit’, ‘luxury’ and ‘inspiration’. When I reflect on this I am reminded of Robin Skynner (the family therapist) in his book with John Cleese, ‘Life and How to Survive It’. Skynner describes the attributes of healthy families: “They communicate well. They’re straightforward – direct and open and honest with each other.” Within these families he notes a freedom to express diverse opinions without the fear of loss of acceptance, “… these families have great respect for everybody’s world view. Each person’s subjective opinion is given house-room, and people are allowed to disagree. … there’s been so much trust and confidence and mutual support. When you’re given a lot of freedom and encouragement, yet also feel contained and supported, you learn to express your energy outwardly, fully and freely.”1

So, is this the essence of the McCrory/Murphy family? Is it the trust and respect, contained and supported within this family unit, that is key to the success of their work process? Is it the strong containment that allows the work to undergo such tough scrutiny, without any loss of personal acceptance? My experience tells me we only open ourselves fully to those we trust, and the counter-intuitive truth, that we are able to take greater risk when we feel secure, has been well described by psychologists.

It appears then to be a simple ‘home truth’. The key to learning, development, innovation and growth is to function within an environment where you know that those who challenge do so from a position of love and complete acceptance. In the McCrory/Murphy situation this forms the platform on which 100 years of collective art-making experience is built. The significant and impressive body of work that makes up ‘Silver Connections’ confirms this family’s position at the forefront of the applied arts and contemporary silversmithing in Ireland.

With great affection,

Danae Kindness, Curator
2006

  1. Life and How to Survive It, R. Skynner and J. Cleese, 1993, Mandarin. Pg. 26-30