A star is just a memory of a star brings together artworks by Jane Hayes Greenwood, Alexi Marshall, Robin Megannity, Alan Stanners and Katie Tomlinson using the poem Fireflies by Nick Cave as the starting point.
Fireflies
Jesus lying in his mother's arms
Is a photon released from a dying star
We move through the forest at night
The sky is full of momentary light
And everything we need is just too far
We are photons released from a dying star
We are fireflies a child has trapped in a jar
And everything is distant as the stars
I am here and you are where you are
We have lived a long time here in the forest
We lie beneath the heaps of leaves
We are partial to this partial light
We cannot sleep and fear our dreams
There is no order here, nothing can be planned
We are fireflies trapped in a little boy's hand
And everything is distant as the stars
And I am here and you are where you are
And we lie among our atoms and I speak to you of things
And hope sometimes that maybe you will understand
There is no order here and there is no middle ground
Nothing can be predicted and nothing can be planned
A star is just a memory of a star
We are fireflies pulsing dimly in the dark
We are here and you are where you are
We are here and you are where you are
Through the works in the exhibition we consider the invisible strings that bind us, pulling us inexorably towards the ones we love or - through tricks of time and circumstance - become tangled and knotted keeping us apart. We explore ideas of intimacy and desire, touch and restraint, addiction, and the intangible, unspoken bond of family. As in Cave’s poem, there is a sense that the ones we love are phantoms or shadows, always walking alongside us even when we are kept apart.
We are fireflies trapped in a little boy’s hand, and everything is distant as the stars, I am here and you are where you are.
