SIGNS OF LIFE: LONDON

We migrants are no different to a thing with wings. Outstretched and focused, we make the pivotal decision to leave the familiar for the unknown. In its second edition, Signs of Life pens its love letter to London with the feather of a Parakeet; an homage to the mass exodus of Caribbean migrants to England in hopes of a new life. 

Across wild fields and parks of London, wild Ring-Necked Parakeets can be found in the hundreds of thousands and have– since their mysterious arrival in the last century– reconstituted the fabric of the city’s ecosystem. The irony of this tropical species thriving in an unfamiliar landscape and often too-cold climate is the main inquisition of artist, Mairi Millar. To her, the historical and ecological traces of the Parakeet parallel those of the Caribbean migrants, more notably known as the Windrush Generation. As a Trinidadian residing in London, Millar acknowledges the courage it takes to find your flock and make noise in an ecosystem that functions differently. 

“Life”, in this exhibition, is marked by the tangible and intangible accompaniments of a journey made, and the tension that exists with the movement of living things. Be it a feather, an eggshell, or the sound of a familiar ‘squawk’, there are remnants to be found in the search for belonging; a life built, and lived. In turn, Millar delicately confronts these fragile objects and questions the relationship they have with their newly inhabited environments.

- Zarna Hart, Curator