Murmuration

2023, O’Donoghue Centre, University of Galway, Galway Co., Ireland

'Murmuration', 2023, © Nicola Anthony

Permanent public sculpture with poem by Louis De Paor

Stainless Steel, 300 (W) x 300 (D) x 100 (H) cm


Murmuration is inspired by the Irish language poem ‘Daoine Uaisle’ by Louis de Paor, and comprises over a hundred metal birds suspended in flight with the poem’s words cut into their wings.

Daoine Uaisle portrays crowds of people walking past an unseen, homeless, Romanian woman in the street - surrounded by people yet still incredibly alone. The poem was written about the1990s, when there was a flow of migration from Romania to Ireland. De Paor creates a picture of the loneliness and lack of welcome that was felt then by migrants, in contrast to the city of Galway being alive with the sounds, smells and sights of culture. Still relevant in today’s world, this poem is reborn and resurfaced.

Here as an installation, the poem itself becomes displaced, migrating, re-interpreted.

The depiction of murmurations of starlings started to form part of the artist’s lexicon after her research into isolated communities in 2019. Sketchbook drawings about migration incorporated the birds as an allegory for the many people across the world who have had to migrate from their homes and settle in a new village, city, land or community. 

“In nature, the birds’ coordination is caused by thousands of individual movements and instinctive actions. This phenomenon is called emergent behaviour, where they appear choreographed but are in fact all acting independently. The parallels with how humans behave in a crowd or as part of a society became part of my research around belonging: From the outside each individual appears like they know where they fit in, which can make it incredibly hard for someone from outside the community to find their place.”

Nicola Anthony

This sculpture was commissioned as part of the Aistriú project, with support from University of Galway, Arts in Action and Galway 2020, and it will be included in the Galway Poetry Trail. We are very grateful to the University of Galway Buildings and Estates team and in Drama Studies department for their support.


Daoine Uaisle

Poem by Louis De Paor

______________________

Ar shráideanna naofa

Chathair na dTreabh

mar a bhfuair Cromail,

de réir an tseanchais,

lóistín dá chapall i sanctóir eaglaise,

tá boladh spíosraí san aer

a chuirfeadh faobhar

ar ghoile Céile Dé.

Tá port feadóige ag séideadh

as bolg an tseanbhaile,

anáil na staire isteach

tré fhallaí fuara

dheisceart Chonamara.

I lár an aonaigh

lena súile bó, tá bean

ón Rúmáin ina suí le geata

meánaoiseach an tséipéil,

cárta mór faoina muineál

mar a bheadh peaca marfach

á admháil aici i láthair na bhfíréan.

Ladies and gentlemen...

a deir an pheannaireacht chaol,

is ní scoithfí níos tapúla í

dá nochtfadh sí cíoch

nó géag theasctha.

Ladies and gentlemen... please.

Tá an cupa polystyrene os a comhair

ag cur thar maoil le dea-mhéin

an Aire Dlí agus Cirt (sic),

a goile ag ceol le hocras.

On the holy streets

of the City of the Tribes,

where legend has it

that Cromwell stabled his horses

in the sanctuary of a church,

there’s a smell of spices in the air

that would whet

the appetite of God’s wife.

A tin-whistle tune blows

from the belly of the old town,

the breath of history

through the cold walls

of South Connemara.

In the middle of the market

with her cow-eyes,

a Romanian woman

sits at the gates of St Nicholas’s,

a placard around her neck

as though she were admitting

a mortal sin before the elders:

Ladies and gentlemen...

says the scrawny handwriting

and we wouldn’t pass her

any quicker if she exposed

a breast or a withered limb,

Ladies and gentlemen... please.

The polystyrene cup at her feet

is filled to the brim

with the best wishes

of the Minister for Justice (sic)

her stomach singing with hunger.


Supported and commissioned by:

Buíochas ó chroí: Coimisiúnaíodh an dealbh seo mar chuid den togra Aistriú, le tacaíocht ó Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, Arts in Action agus Gaillimh 2020, agus beidh sé ar Chonair Filíochta na Gaillimhe as seo amach. Táimid fíorbhuíoch as ár gcomhghleacaithe san fhoireann Foirgnimh agus Eastáit agus i nDisciplín na Drámaíochta as a gcuid tacaíochta.

This sculpture was commissioned as part of the Aistriú project, with support from University of Galway, Arts in Action and Galway 2020, and it will be included in the Galway Poetry Trail. We are very grateful to the University of Galway Buildings and Estates team and in Drama Studies department for their support.


If you don't have room or the budget to collect art right now,
here's a way of having a little part of this public sculpture…
An exclusive edition high-quality mug has been created in a ceramic collaboration, bearing a print from my series of Poetry Birds who have words for wings. It is launched in the lead up to ‘Murmuration’s unveiling at the permanent collection of University of Galway, 2023.

 
Poetry birds ceramic mug (Exclusive edition)
from £35.00
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