Murmuration
Susanne Kiely
Biography
The delight of making mud pies in the yard aged five and laying them in a row cemented that aha moment. I had found my passion. But academic parents squeezed it. After many years as a teacher I had a place at art school.
The title of the exhibition Murmuration means a large group of birds, typically starlings, flying simultaneously and in the same direction together. An amazing sight creating wonderful three-dimensional shapes and patterns. These birds can fly up to 50 miles per hour, swooping and soaring the skies. Birds can do this by keeping track of its seven immediate neighbours and ignores all others. So the twists and turns are swiftly spread. The other lesser-known meaning of murmuration is the murmuring of low continuous sounds, or complaining noises.
The ancient counting system of the five bar gate/slashes, visually shows this complaining. Exposing the past, and holding the art pieces together. Be it seconds, minutes, days or years. Another image is superimposed on the five bar gate/slashes showing the positive outcome. These images represent some of the Fruits of the Spirit e.g. the cake represents kindness as one of the Fruits of the Spirit. The other titles are classic quotes from the Bible.
The art works show many kinds of mark making: smears, scribbles and smudges that is: cloth wiping, scribbles by pens and smudges by contact. The final images are composed of layers of mark making on a square shaped cloth, the canvas. 1 These are related to the napkin or handkerchief form, which soak up our stains.
The complaining murmur or five bar gate/slashes really became strong when I had children. It was impossible to create art and do the best having three children under three. There were snippets of creating, amongst the endless, washing, tidying, cleaning and cooking. The children are more important. The famous quote, ’the pram in the hall’ 2… did work for a while, but the three are now grown up.
1 The four paintings titled Seasons have the lower two works as a rectangular shape to make the cross shape
2 Cyril Connolly 1903-1974, critic and writer wrote this infamous full quote in his book Enemies of Promise, 1938:
“There is no more somber enemy of good art than the pram in the hall”
