Edi McGurk

Edi McGurk is an interdisciplinary artist based in Essex and, from time-to-time, East London. Due to chronic illness, they’re mostly based in bed.

Edi is dedicated to a socially-engaged practice that explores, reflects on and documents experiences of marginalisation and community, time, memory and imagination - with a particular focus on disability, place, gender and queerness. After originally developing their craft as a photographer, they now work with a slower, more accessible practice - with mediums including cataloguing and collage, analogue photography, moving image, sound, print and workshops.

@sleepy_edi / www.edi.xyz

Update on Edi McGurk’s installation

Edi’s work changed during its install. A few days into the exhibition a piece of work was removed from the show by the gallery due to its content. The work in question was part of Edi McGurk’s installation and specifically was a black hoodie with the phrase FREE PALESTINE hand stitched on the front.

Since then TOMA has been in conversation with Edi, supporting them as best we know how to respond. Edi has evolved their work in response to its partial removal. The responsive installation and statements from Edi, Beecroft Art Gallery, and TOMA, can be seen in the exhibition and also in the images here. You can read the statements in full below, along with updated photos of the work.

TOMA are committed to untangling this and ensuring that this doesn’t happen again.

Everyone knows we are working in fraught times, the world is burning, people are leaving the industry and we are trying to operate within and outside the system at the same time. TOMA was born out of politics and now, nearly ten years later, we are trying to work out what these changing landscapes mean to us and to the artists, galleries and others we collaborate with.