Love Letters to the Land

‘Love Letters to the Land’ is a large-scale immersive installation from an ongoing participatory artwork by Karl Murphy, first developed in 2023 following his exhibition ‘I Extend My Arms’ with ArtHouse Jersey and supported by Jersey Heritage.

Emerging from a two-year residency examining the legacy of surrealist artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore, Murphy uses the project to ask a simple but urgent question: if we speak to the land as if it is alive, how does our relationship to it change?

His project draws on the love letters of Cahun and the ancient Irish poetic form of the Aisling, in which the land appears as a beloved figure. During research at Jersey Archive, Murphy encountered materials that revealed how deeply Jersey shaped Cahun and Moore’s creative lives. The Island was not a backdrop, but an active force within their work, from Cahun’s bodily engagement with its rocks and beaches to the subversive letters the pair produced to protect the Island during the Nazi Occupation.

Jersey workshop participants were invited to write personal love letters to the land on pink paper. Each workshop contributed to a growing collection of writing that has formed the current installation. Together, the letters propose a way of relating to Jersey, not as property or resource but as something living and encountered through attention, intimacy and care.

Made possible by the Creative Island Fund. With thanks to all the participants across the Island.