‘…Dancing together in Mary's future vision is the fantastical past we have learned to accept in biological evolution and a potential future that seems equally incredible; a world where a form of progression in response to the climate has taken place. The fish and the alien dancing their salutary tale – if it could happen to a fish, it could happen to you. But, of course, maybe it's not us at all, perhaps we have left the picture, and this is some new anthropomorphic creature, risen out of the gunge.’
- Neva Elliot, Artist, Writer, Arts Consultant
Published on RTE Culture, In The Picture: The Midden Collective at the Luan Gallery. Read on here.
‘Marys’ paintings propose for us a hybridised future, human identity becoming simply a genetic trace, present and identifiable, but no longer a pure dominant. The forced change of the anthropocene is rinsing us away on tides of petroleum rainbows, translucent husks of mermaid purses and glittering fish scales. Perhaps she is sketching out a design for survival, proposing genetic hybrids, like lungfish, decade sleeping burrowing frogs, dessicated tardigrades (the creatures who present closest the possible capacity to survive Sarahs’ moon): the emergent hybrid taxons, pushing up through the detritus of technological failure, novel chimeras, thriving in their adapted newness.(Refs.3,4,5). Maybe amongst these merpeople stand the archaeologists who will despair at the wilful blindness that informs the vast plastic middens that will stand as our feet of Ozymandias…’
‘I enter the show 'Gormworm' and a tickling, slightly uncomfortable feeling comes over me. A soundscape, sculptural installation and surrealistic pictures expand the white walls of 'Tapir Gallery', creating playful imagery that talks about cycles, time and the moon. The science fictional approach makes me think of Donna Haraway's texts about new forms of being in symbiosis, creating new naturalcultural living. It is with thanks to the artists, Sarah, Niamh and Mary, that I got to experience the animalistic parts in me that I so often repress and unsee. But why not go there and check it out for yourself!’
‘[Hu]Manned Mission raises its grinning head above the parapet, firing fictions and truths into both the historic and the contemporary. It punctures holes in known narratives, manifests kindly creatures, and extends itself to the viewer in playful spikey whispers. But there are anthropocentric and cultural tensions at play here that question the validity of our collective historic memory, the command of womankind, and our propensity to perpetuate the fallacy of escapism.’
‘[Hu]Manned Mission was a dynamic addition to our programme, in keeping with the ethos of Lumen Studios, a collective focused on astronomy and light, presenting an exciting combination of video, installation, painting and print. It engaged the audience with its seemingly light-hearted look at myths and superstitions, prompting reflection and self-scrutiny in tandem with a more subversive critical focus and interrogation of the ownership and veracity of single-dimensional experience and testimony.’
