Turning fallen trees into beauty - Introducing Michael (Muck) Murphy.

At On the Square , every piece tells a story, and we are honored to welcome Michael(Muck) Murphy into the house. His work under Non Violent Cutlery transforms fallen trees—once towering, now felled by time, storms, or necessity—into sculptural forms that bridge craft, history, and nature.

Muck’s practice extends beyond function, delving into the cultural and emotional weight of material. His pieces, carved from windfallen wood, embody the passage of time—growth rings holding centuries of stories, surfaces revealing the echoes of past landscapes.

The Upsi

de-down chair

One of the most exciting pieces to emerge from this collaboration is a chair that brings together the creative vision of multiple minds. Irenie Cossey, Muck, and Katarzyna (Kasia) Kempa, they joined forces to reimagine the chair as an artifact of the nature wonderland , shaping the chair from a fallen oak tree and designed with technical expertise to bring the piece to life.

Carved in the garden lands of Co. Wicklow, in Ireland. This chair embodies the spirit of OntheSq, where every object carries the weight of its past and the promise of new meaning. Jack Cossey has captured moments from Irenie’s visit to Muck’s workshop, offering a glimpse into the making process—the transformation of raw, storm-felled wood into a piece that will sit within the house’s evolving story.

This chair will be presented beside three other family objects that have stemmed from the dreamland of Irenie's brain and into the thoughtful hands of Muck. As these visuals come in, we’ll be sharing them as part of the unfolding narrative of the house.