One spring morning in 2022, I visited Claire (Morgan) in her studio to do a book swap. We had known each other peripherally for years and were both familiar with our respective practices, having been students and new graduates in Newcastle at around the same time in the early 2000s. However aside from bumping into each other at openings, this was the first time we had sat down together to talk.
At this time the effects of the pandemic were still very present, and our conversation quickly turned to how we felt about the impact this had had on us and our work. We spoke of feeling isolated and adrift, and also how the landscape within which we worked seemed to have shifted. We reflected on the need we both had to feel more connected, as previous structures that had held us in the past seemed to have fallen away. Something was sparked and over the next few months we kept meeting to figure out how this inkling of an idea could be shaped into something more tangible.
On 7 November 2022, we took the plunge and invited a number of women artists to join us for the first gathering, not really knowing where it would go. Defined by the number of people we could squeeze around Claire’s table, and a sense we had of shared common interests, the invitation was simply to come along and bring a piece of work to share over food. Clare made soup, I made cake, and it became immediately clear that we were not alone in wanting to be part of a community, and how vital it is to have a safe space to share work in its raw and unpolished forms.
Hypha was born, and we have gone on to hold many more gatherings, inviting other artists, curators and writers to join us, helping as our name suggests to forge wider and deeper connections.
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