Seaside special – Zoe Murphy’s dreams and memories of Margate

Margate is a strange old fashioned place on the English Kent Coast. The birth place of Brit Art luminary Tracey Emmin and twinned with the  Ukrainian resort Yalta, its fading glories include the run down Dreamland amazement arcade, the UK’s oldest wooden roller coaster, and a growing community of artists and designers. Amongst them Zoe Murphy is clearly inspired by her seaside home .

Zoe  turns cafe and kitchen tables into wall art.   Is it possible to feel nostalgic for somewhere you’ve never been? Margate is somewhere my father visited as a small boy in the 1930s and he still talks about  it’s golden sands and, of course, Dream Land. I have no such memories yet I find these images deeply evocative. How do they make you feel?

Similar inspiration for these cushions, or pillows as our American cousins call them. They are silk, mostly made from un-picked wedding dresses that have been hand dyed and screen printed using environmentally friendly inks. I suspect everyone reacts to these differently. A promise of relaxed, carefree days? Nostalgia for half forgotten days or an imagined past that never really was?

More unpicked silk wedding dresses, more inspiration from 50′s Formica table tops, this time on a recycled footstool. So distinctly hand crafted and thoughtful. And again, a piece which inspires dreams and memories.

Her work also includes lovingly restored retro furniture decorated with designs inspired by the Formica table tops from Margate’s cafes, illustrated with scenes from its sea side. Zoe Murphy creates so much more than furniture and accessories. She inspires dreams and memories.