14 Aug In Conversation with Meryl Donoghue: ‘Sound’
Next month, StolenSpace is proud to present a solo exhibition, ‘I thought to have been gone by now…’ by London based artist, Meryl Donoghue. Donoghue’s new, multi-layered body of work moves across a wide variety of media, featuring works of sound, installation, digital photography and drawing. We are so excited to see this stunning new work in our space…but until then, we are eager to engage in conversation with Meryl, and build a bit of dialogue around the interesting ideas and exciting styles she has chosen to work with for this upcoming show. Be sure to check the blog every few days for updates from the artist. Each post will focus on a specific area of artistic production that has gone into the making of this exhibition!
Today, we want to ask Meryl about the ‘Sound’ aspect of her upcoming exhibition. The artist has created a piece of writing, from which the title of her show was born. Her text was then narrated and recorded, and will be played to accompany the installation Meryl is set to built within our gallery space.
StolenSpace: It is very exciting to see an artist use writing, narration and the act of storytelling as a medium. Tell us a bit about the sound piece you have created, titled: ‘I thought to have been gone by now…’ Can we expect to see elements of storytelling throughout the exhibition?
Meryl Donoghue: ‘I thought to have been gone by now’ is a poignant yet jovial poke in humanity’s eye: performed by the decaying corpse of a marooned albatross. It is an installation piece, which brings together both sound and animatronics in order to resurrect the broken bones of a forlorn creature, exposing its every passing thought, no matter how trivial.
Though at first we encounter a seemingly jocular, though nonsensical individual, making incessant proclamations with regards his comings and goings, the whys and the wherefores; what soon becomes apparent is that these are the ramblings of a lost soul, stranded with no sense of time or place, whose prevailing thoughts are of leaving, but who has no set plans to depart.
This piece started with the text. I had written a piece with a certain rhythm in mind and that rhythm gave birth to a character. It is definitely an act of storytelling but I would not want it to be too prescriptive in its intent. It should have ambiguity and loose ends as these allow an entry point for others. I would apply this thinking to all of the works in the exhibition. There are suggestions but no dictations.
Stay tuned for more insight from Meryl Donoghue as we prepare to launch ‘I thought to have been gone by now’ at StolenSpace Gallery on 5 September 2013.