Margarita Cappock visits painter Bernadette Kiely at her home and studio in Thomastown, Co Kilkenny
Bernadette Kiely’s latest exhibition, entitled ‘Don’t Need No Country, Don’t Fly No Flag’, presents new large-scale paintings, drawings and a video piece concerned with the effects of weather, flooding and decay on the landscape and human lives. The exhibition title is taken from the lyrics of a modern protest song, ‘Woody Guthrie’ by the British musical group Alabama 3, which lambasts nationalism as absurd. The lyrics resonated with Kiely, as they align with her own enduring concerns about the nature of borders. Since childhood, she has felt uneasy with the demarcation of lands. This has become even more important to her in this time of environmental distress. The artist notes, ‘The imaginary lines that we call borders are unsuitable for a warming world. Today, climate-change impacts are felt worldwide, with regions all over the world affected and evidence of a consequent collapse in geography as we know it. When areas become too wet, too hot, where can people go?’
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