Lyon & Turnbull | Lucy Mulholland
12 June 2023
In August 2023 we were excited to present an exhibition of work by the winner of our 2022 Graduate Showcase Award, Lucy Mulholland, a sculptor who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art with a BA (Hons) in Sculpture in the summer of 2022.
She focuses on actions or gestures which seem insignificant or futile, and presents them as catalysts for potential future action. Lucy’s recent work ‘Alarm Call’ utilises humour to approach our era of poly-crisis, translating the distress call of the chaffinch to examine how human and other species’ experiences of crisis intersect. Lucy developed this after after discovering a chaffinch’s distress call likened to the sound of a person falling down the stairs. The work, consisting of slip cast chaffinches and a plywood emergency staircase, brings the often disassociated human and ‘more-than-human’ worlds together into one shared space. It draws parallels between the desensitisation which can arise as we respond to catastrophic media cycles, and our misunderstanding of everyday distress signals emitted from the ‘more-than-human’ world. Foregrounding the ‘language of birds’ challenges the complex history of human exceptionalism, which complicates humanity’s relationship with nature and has been used to justify the exploitation of many forms of life. Lucy uses humour as a tool when depicting or processing crisis or catastrophe to make it more palatable, whilst at the same time creating a space for hope. In 'Alarm Call’s' uncanny narrative, for example, the birds appear dazed, but not dead.
It was such a privilege to be selected for the Lyon & Turnbull Graduate Award and to spend a week’s residency in Sweeney’s Bothy on the Isle of Eigg. I heard about the Bothy Project in my very first week studying at ECA, and the award felt like a poignant way to end my time as a student. Time spent outdoors has always informed my artistic research and practice and the remote and solitary nature of the residency provided me with a different context within which to explore my ideas. Most of my time was spent investigating the island’s wildlife by foot, trying to see as much as I could, particularly the island’s bird life. I also used the time to read, record my observations by drawing, and making small paper models or sculptures as a way of generating new ideas. As it was my first time visiting the Hebrides, I was recommended by a friend to read ‘Soil and Soul’ by Alastair Mcintosh. Not only was it a really interesting read, but it also meant that when I met local people for the first time, I already ‘knew’ them from reading about their role in the community buyout of the island, which felt a little surreal! I learned so much from conversations with the people who lived on Eigg particularly from a few ‘makers’ living there. It was an amazing experience which I will always remember and will likely go on to inform my practice in ways I am still yet unaware of.