Podcast Appearances
I think it was an interview with Ed Sheeran who said that lots of people tell him like, oh my gosh, you're very talented.
And he says, no, no, no.
It's taken me about eight to nine years to get to this point where I can do something like this.
We often love to believe that the idea of talent is very romantic.
It suggests that some people are simply built differently, that greatness arrives fully formed like a gift.
Murugaya here isn't having any of it, though, is he?
He's speaking from experience, not theory.
The work he's showing at the Quentin Blake Center represents years of deliberate and glamorous development, transitioning from architecture to illustration, building a visual aesthetic through pandemic, then pushing further into emotional depth, then further again into acrylic painting.
None of this was accidental.
It was chosen repeatedly over a long time.
And when we reframe talent as the visible result of invisible effort, it stops being something you either have or you don't.
It starts being something you build and that's far more useful and that's far more honest story to tell.
Slowly and slowly.
In this instance, I would say Murugaya is really discussing imposter syndrome with a practical clarity.
Let's be honest.
Imposter syndrome lives in a gap between where you are and where you think you should be.
It's a future-facing anxiety dressed up as self-awareness.
But fun, curiosity, genuine play, those are only available right now, in this moment, in this piece of work.
When Murugaya moved into sculpture for the first time as part of this exhibition...
He wasn't thinking about whether he deserved to be there.