A huge thank you to Yang Ge for the curatorial essay on the recent Chengdu exhibition at XLY Moma Museum .
This is the first comprehensive exhibition of Niamh Cunningham’s collection of paintings relating to her art practice the “ Memory Palace of Tree Stories “.
In October 2019 after reading the Pulitzer prizewinning novel ‘The Overstory” by Richard Powers the artist began the sociological – ecological art practice of gathering people’s tree stories.
“A forest knows things” – Richard Powers
This novel uses the ecological crisis as the basis of conflict, deconstructing ecological consciousness from current values, and projects it to the “kingdom of trees” beyond human cognition.
To a certain extent, in such a realm beyond reality, the deconstructed consciousness is deeply involved in the mutual game between the body and the spirit, death and eternity, technology and nature. This confrontation with the current context is a fragmented realization ultimately pointing to the return of humanity and the awakening of consciousness.
Here, plants are capable of the extraordinary, such as healing the human heart and also the redemption of the soul. In the repeated cycles of deconstruction, connection and reconstruction, relationship between humans and living plants has been dismantled into more facades, revealing more possibilities for the relationship between humans and ecology.
Cunningham visualizes these possibilities through canvas, and unfolds a creative path parallel to literature with the expression of images.
Since January 2020, the artist began to gather stories in written format from people of different professions and ages from all over the world who are connected to trees. The following year the stories the artist collected were put in the format of one minute videos. Following the preparation of these stories and her perception of them, a series of paintings were finally formed. Here, these fragmented images penetrate time and space and reach the collective expression of an ecocentric world view.
“Tree” is the narrative window which deconstructs individual consciousness and finally focuses on collective consciousness from multiple perspectives, showing the dialogue between people and ecology in the context of this group of consciousness.
We no longer focus only on the relationship between individuals, but more on the relationship between individuals and groups, and individuals and society. The artist implants independent stories into her pen, refines the collective expression of images, and with this facilitative participatory process , points to the co-creation of consciousness.
The exhibits also cover the stories of trees extracted from the artist’s own growth experience: the big willow tree in the backyard of her home in Ireland is the origin of her family’s deep perception of trees; the shrub waterfall in the Olympic Park near her home in Beijing is the mark of her 15 years of living in China; the tropical rainforest in Xishuangbanna is her interactive log with the collaborative video work “Forest Breath”.
The collaborative embroidery work with her mother “The Pattern that Connects” presents the solid family ties interwoven by the oak, ginkgo and willow.
The different forms of expression used by the artist, such as painting, photography, hair textile, singing, embroidery, and video, are like the roots of interconnected trees in the forest floor, leading the viewer to perceive a “forest story ” immersion within the memory palace. In terms of her sucrose crystallization technique, the surface of the paper presents the interaction and fusion of ink and sugar in the crystallization. After the creation, the color continues to shift and change with crystallization, and the painting grows subtly and sustainably, just like the trees, unpredictable and silent.
In the “Memory Palace of Tree Stories”, we find the restoration of humanity and the awakening of consciousness of each individual in the face of our ecological future as a global society. We were moved by the stories of “trees” and inspired by the power of images.
As it is said in “The Overstory “: : “Link enough trees together and a forest grows aware.” When Cunningham connects enough tree stories together, people begin to feel.
Gaia Young June 2024
Memory Palace of Tree Stories Link (stories on video)