the luminescence of the night sky

Kate MccGwire. Splice. Mixed media with magpie feathers. 2012

At first glance it looks like an impossibly massive braid of hair; a relic of Rapunzel if she'd had raven tresses. Or perhaps magpie tresses. Black with an iridescence that breaks to blue, to green. Darkness that breaks to light.

The work is Kate MccGwire's Splice; hundreds of magpie feathers worked together to form a rope of sorts, then braided, interwoven. 

It's a work that speaks of constraint. Of being tied down. Of weight. Of birds rendered flightless. Of all of the doing that brings about our undoing.

And yet. It contains all of the luminescence of the night sky.

Kate MccGwire. Splice. Mixed media with feathers. 2012

Kate MccGwire. Splice (detail). Mixed media with magpie feathers. 2012

See more about Kate MccGwire in the following posts: collecting as art practice; holy waters; and out of the fire.