Kyriaki Costa presents MURMUR kairos at Velychko Gallery in Limassol

Limassol, Cyprus. Velychko Gallery presents MURMUR kairos, a solo exhibition by Cypriot artist Kyriaki Costa featuring a new body of sculpture, embroidery and painting. Curated by Denise Araouzou, the exhibition runs from October 9 to December 15.

Warning signals and responsibility

The exhibition takes the idiom “canary in the coal mine” as its starting point, exploring murmurs that call for a response at a decisive time.

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The expression, described in the exhibition text as having been coined in the early 19th century, stems from coal miners’ use of caged canaries, whose heightened sensitivity to toxic fumes warned them to evacuate before suffocating. It came to denote an event or person signalling approaching danger.

The exhibition also examines how the use of canaries in mining raises questions about systems that determine which bodies live or die first, who is sacrificed and who suffers so others can remain unharmed.

Costa questions imbalances between messengers, exposure and responsibility, using sentinel species to tell stories of entanglement.

Ants as a metaphor for cooperation

On the other side of the exhibition’s proverbial coal mine tunnel, ants excavate to build worlds based on sufficiency rather than excess. Although their nests remain largely invisible to humans, they can undermine infrastructure that once appeared immovable.

Costa’s decision to weave and carve ants into her works is partly a playful reference to an ant colony discovered behind the gallery walls during renovation works.

It is also an invitation to recognise ants’ sophisticated, almost alchemical systems of cooperation as a helpful and hopeful metaphor for organising resistance, even on a small scale, and to listen to voices that may be considered “small”.

Exhibition details

MURMUR kairos runs through October, November and December, from October 9 to December 15, at Velychko Gallery in Limassol. Opening-night hours are 5pm to 9pm.

The exhibition is open during Limassol Art Walks and by appointment on 96-855580. Further information is available at www.velychko.gallery.