HOME SERIES x AMBROSE RHAPSODY MURRAY
Home is a word with many meanings — a place to rest and renew, to gather and grow, connect and commune. It means different things to different people at different times, making it a constant source of fascination and inspiration to us.
Through this series, we explore the meaning of home through the eyes and words of creative people who move, intrigue, and energise us.
Ambrose Murray is an artist whose work blends textiles, painting, film, and photography to create visual explorations of memory, family, colonialism, healing, and grief.
In this edition of our home series, Ambrose walks us through the colours, textures, sights and sounds that make her feel most at home, the artists who inspire her, and the objects she holds most dear.
What does home mean to you?
For me, home is a place of safety, rest, recovery, beauty and rootedness, wherever that may be.
How do you make your home a space of calm and comfort to come back to after a day at the studio?
I like to be surrounded by warm colors, soft textures, natural or lamp-light, plants and music playing. Those things bring me comfort. Lately, I’ve been sleeping with my Norlha blanket or cuddling up with it on the couch.
'For me, home is a place of safety, rest, recovery, beauty and rootedness, wherever that may be'
Can you walk us through a ritual from your day that makes you feel calm or that brings you joy?
Yes, I like to start my day with a hot shower and peppermint soap. Then often I go for a walk with my dog at City Park here in New Orleans, surrounded by the world’s oldest Oak trees. Lately, Jasmine, Honeysuckle and Magnolia trees have been blooming around the city. I like to go for a stroll, smell the flowers, and take in the scents and sights.
Your work captures so many stories of heritage and ancestry — tell us about this part of your work. What messages do you want people to take from your pieces? What stories do you most want to tell?
At the core of my work, I’m trying to tell stories exploring intimacy through memory, touch, texture, layers and colors. Although my primary medium is textiles, much of my work is rooted in found photographs. Previously, I was using a lot of colonial photographs of Black girls and women, thinking about intimacy through a historical lens. Lately, I’ve been working with more contemporary photos, exploring romantic and familial intimacy, and memory in relation to interior spaces, inside the car and the home.
Where do you draw your inspiration from?
I’m often inspired by other visual artists — Suzanne Jackson, Sam Gilliam, Lorna Simpson, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and many others. I also find inspiration in music, dance, poetry, writers and researchers, and film.
Are there any objects or items in your home or studio that you have cherished over the years? Where did they come from? Why are they so precious to you?
My sewing machine is very precious to me. My current machine doesn’t have any particularly special origins, but the act of sewing connects me to my late grandmother and great-grandmothers. Sewing is central to my practice and connects me to my creative impulses from childhood when I first started sewing.
What is making you smile at the moment?
Springtime and lots of sun.
Thank you to Ambrose for opening up her home to us. The blanket featured in this edition of Home Series is Norlha's Nomad Dense Boiled Tent Blanket in Fuschia, 100% Yak Khullu. Photography by Kewon Murray & Coco Villa.