Cirrus

May 3 — Jul 26, 2025
Field:

Exhibition

Description:

Cirrus was a solo exhibition by Irish Canadian artist-filmmaker Holly Márie Parnell. Rooted in a documentary approach and shaped by personal encounters, Parnell’s work explores ideas around connection and estrangement in our present moment. The exhibition featured the debut of Cirrus (2025), a new two-channel video work, accompanied by a live video performance on opening night.

Named after the slender sensory appendage found on various animals—used to grasp, feed, anchor, or navigate without sight—Cirrus traverses an interior landscape shaped by the perspectives of artists Min Kim and Mia Wennerstrand. Set between two European capitals hollowed out by late capitalism, Cirrus immerses viewers in the affective atmosphere of today. It asks: What does it mean to be an artist in a time of economic disparity, cultural malaise, and political impotence?

As cityscapes shift like changing theatre backdrops, a quiet dialogue emerges between screen and spectator—where the simple acts of watching, listening, and waiting create a subtle architecture of connection. In this space, Min’s intimate correspondences reveal stories of mysterious creatures—moles, lemurs, pink fairy armadillos—tracing her own animal attunement around a felt absence. In contrast, Mia’s voice arrives as a spectral transmission: a fragmented lecture broadcast across an empty theatre, deserted dance floor, abandoned theme park, and classroom, asking: “Who talks anymore? Who listens anymore?” The thirty-three minute video installation played on a continuous loop. 

On the opening night, Parnell presented a live video performance which continues her Desktop Compositions (2014–) series. A recorded version of the performance played as an installation in the Grand Luxe Hall during gallery hours.

A commissioned text by poet Lotte L.S. titled “Useful Creature” (2025) accompanied the exhibition.

Cirrus was commissioned by Western Front, Vancouver, with support from the Arts Council, Ireland; Canada Council for the Arts; and the Audain Foundation.

Documents:

A set of double doors leading to a gallery are open wide, revealing a dark interior with white text summarizing the Cirrus installation. The foyer is daylit, and its walls are empty and white.
The gallery is bare and dark except for two screens on the left wall emitting light. The screen closest to the entrance shows the back of a person’s head, sporting a black bob haircut, as they lie prone on a large poster of a tarantula, only its legs peaking. The other screen is dark.
The gallery is completely dark except for a black screen on the left wall projecting, quote, this armadillo doesn’t do very well in captivity, unquote.
Two screens hang next to each other in the unlit gallery. Looking straight ahead, the left screen shows a banana and slices of lemons on a cutting board, the right screen shows a theater from the stands with purple spotlights.
Two screens hang next to each other in the unlit gallery. Looking straight ahead, the left screen is dark, and the right screen shows a person walking across a theater stage with an empty audience in the background.
From the back of the unlit gallery, two screens on a wall face a long lounge chair. Grey and blue light emits from the right screen, which shows the window-filled facade of a building complex on a cloudy day. The left screen is dark.
From the back of the unlit gallery, white light emits from two screens facing a long lounge chair. The right screen shows Mia Wernerstrand speaking at a desk, in an office, while the left screen is dark.
From the back of the unlit gallery, pale light emits from two screens facing a long lounge chair. The left screen shows a close-up shot of white feathers with overlaid text, while the right screen is dark.

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Captions:

Western Front is a non-profit artist-run centre in Vancouver.

We acknowledge the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations as traditional owners of the land upon which Western Front stands.

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