Deirdre Murphy
Mapping Movements: The Invisible Highways of Urban Birds at the Water’s Edge
2017
Deirdre Murphy earned her MFA from the University of Pennsylvania and BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Murphy is represented by the Gross McCleaf Gallery, Boxheart Gallery and Zinc Contemporary Gallery. Exhibitions include: Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia International Airport, Palm Springs Museum of Art, Biggs Museum of American Art, New Bedford Art Museum, Tacoma Art Museum.
Mapping Movements, The Invisible Highways of Urban Birds at the Water’s Edge is a large-scale Intaglio print that illuminates the abundance of avian life along the banks of the Schuylkill River. Using traditional bird banding data techniques and innovative Motus geo-tracking technology, Murphy reflects on past and current understanding of urban bird migration in the anthropocene age along with the effects of climate change on their migratory patterns. Data visualization was in collaboration with John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, The University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Audubon and Drexel University’s Academy of Natural Science. Intaglio print was produced by C.R. Ettinger Print Studio in Philadelphia.
