Megan Rooney: Echoes & Hours
22 June – 6 October 2024, 11am – 5pm
This is the first major solo exhibition in the UK of work by Megan Rooney (b. 1985, South Africa). Her paintings have an irresistible life and energy, renewing the potential of abstraction to embody the richness of the visual world.
In June 2024, Rooney spent three weeks making a new ‘mural’, painting directly on the walls of one of Kettle’s Yard’s two galleries. In the other gallery a group of new paintings is exhibited for the first time.
Created in ‘family groups’, the size of the canvases she uses are determined by the reach of her outstretched arms. Vibrant colour and line appear boundless, capturing the ebb and flow of their making, from the use of abrasives to remove pigment to repeated overpainting. Each work tells a compelling story, poetically recalling the real, the remembered and the imagined – inviting visitors into their restless and pleasurable worlds.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a new performance work and publication. It is curated by Andrew Nairne and Amy Tobin.
Reviews & Visitor Feedback
“The experience is both physical and heady: look up, look close, feel your eyes widen, or lie down, beguiled by it all, on the floor.”
The Observer,
Each painting is a capsule of time and space…a palimpsest of effort and care, a portal into an intimate conversation between artist and canvas in which the journey of the work remains pulsing just beneath its surface.
Emily LaBarge
It made a feel enclosed in a world of colour. It made me happy.
Visitor
Interview with Megan Rooney
Filmed by Eva Herzog
Find Out More
The Story of Blue
Find out more about the mural Echoes & Hours
5 Things About the Exhibition
Find out more about 5 key things from Echoes & Hours.
Performance: Spin Down Sky (2024)
Filmed by Eva Herzog
Spin Down Sky was developed by Megan Rooney, Temi Ajose and Tyrone Issac-Stuart in close collaboration. Rooney has described the process as a feedback loop, in which Issac-Stuart visited Rooney’s studio, recording incidental sound while she painted and later his own saxophone improvisations. Ajose and Rooney then worked with the soundtrack to develop aspects of the story of the Bolas spider and Night Butterfly who are the protagonists of Spin Down Sky. Rooney also made a series of works on paper – on display in the Research Space – whilst Issac-Stuart played, these also provided source material for Ajose’s cheorgraphy, performed by Ajose and Leah Marajevic. Each collaborator brings their own knowledge and experience of painting, dance and music to the performance, exploring a shared idea across different media.
Spin Down Sky is a love story in which the night butterfly finds herself exploring the boundaries of a forbidden space where she is ensnared by the spider. However, it does not proceed from a beginning to an end, instead the two dancers make contact and part ways a number of times, their movements mirror the different ways we relate to each other, as well as to the precarious ecological systems of the world around us.
Director: Megan Rooney
Performers: Temi Ajose and Leah Marojevic
Choreography: Temi Ajose
Music: tyroneisaacstuart
About Megan Rooney
Based in London, Rooney grew up between South Africa, Brazil and Canada, completing her BA at the University of Toronto followed by an MA in Fine Arts at Goldsmiths College, London in 2011. Her work has recently been shown in solo museum exhibitions, including at the Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2020–21); Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto (2020); and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2019). Her performance EVERYWHERE BEEN THERE, created in collaboration with choreographer Temitope Ajose-Cutting and musician Paolo Thorsen-Nagel, premiered at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf in 2019. The year prior, she performed SUN DOWN MOON UP as part of the Serpentine Galleries’ Park Nights programme in London. Rooney’s work has also been presented in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2022); the Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2021); Lyon Biennale (2019); Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2019 and 2017); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018); Venice Biennale (2017); David Roberts Art Foundation, London (2017 and 2014); and Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris (2014), among others.
Exhibition Events
Meet the Artist: Megan Rooney
Join us for an in-conversation with Megan Rooney to celebrate the launch of the Megan Rooney: Echoes & Hours exhibition publication.
Performance: Spin Down Sky by Megan Rooney
Join us to experience Spin Down Sky, a new dance performance by Megan Rooney commissioned specially for Echoes & Hours.
Performance and Artist Q&A: Spin Down Sky by Megan Rooney
Join us to experience Spin Down Sky, a new dance performance by Megan Rooney commissioned specially for Echoes & Hours. This performance will be followed by an informal in-conversation and reception with the artist.
Exhibition Tours
Exhibition Tour – Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours
Join writer and curator Rebecca Birrell for a response to Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours.
Exhibition Tour – Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours
Join writer Peter de Bolla for a response to Megan Rooney: Echoes and Hours.
Access
- The galleries, where exhibitions are shown, and all areas of the Clore Learning Studio (level -1) and Ede Room (level 2) are fully accessible.
- We have wheelchair accessible toilets on the lower ground, ground and first floor.
- There is a lift giving access to all floors located past the galleries, just beside the Clore Learning Studio on the ground floor.
- Kettle’s Yard welcomes assistance and service dogs in all areas.
- We have large-print versions of the wall text available.
- We can lend visitors small folding seats for taking around exhibitions or using at non-seated events. Please ask a Visitor Assistant for help finding a seat.
This exhibition has been kindly supported by
Megan Rooney: Echoes & Hours Exhibition Circle
Sonja and Martin Brand
Carol Atack and Alex van Someren
Nicholas Crompton
Emma Davis
Sarah and Gerard Griffin
Nicki and Christie Marrian
Bianca and Stuart Roden
And all those who wish to remain anonymous
