Cyprus gallery showcases artist’s climate warning through ant imagery
Velychko Gallery will host MURMUR kairos, a solo show by Cypriot artist Kyriaki Costa, from 9 October to 15 December in Limassol.
Concept and Historical Reference
The title adapts the idiom “canary in the coal mine,” a warning system from the 19th century in which birds were taken underground to signal the presence of toxic fumes for miners. That practice later entered everyday language as a shorthand for any early alert.
In climate science the metaphor has been especially useful. Researchers have been urging governments to change consumption patterns for decades, and the phrase now captures the urgency of those calls.
Critical Themes
Kyriaki Costa’s work asks which bodies are allowed to signal danger and which are abandoned as societies chase safety for a privileged few. She links this hierarchy to a broader necropolitical logic that normalizes the extraction of lives, lands and resources.
The exhibition highlights the disparity between messengers, exposure and responsibility. Sentinel species serve as visual symbols, illustrating how interconnected ecological and social systems become when warning signals are ignored.
During recent renovations, workers discovered an ant colony behind the gallery walls. That finding prompted the artist to incorporate the creatures into her pieces.
She weaves and carves ants into sculpture, embroidery and painting, offering a subtle nod to their hidden, cooperative societies. The artist chose to weave and carve ants into her works partly as a cheeky nod to the discovery of an ant colony living behind the gallery walls during renovation works, and partly as a serious invitation to recognise their sophisticated, almost alchemical systems of cooperation, as a helpful and hopeful metaphor for choreographing resistance even at a minor scale—and to listen even if the voices are ‘small’.
Curator Denise Araouzou organized the show, drawing on her research in environmental education and socially engaged practice. Her curatorial approach emphasizes the link between artistic expression and ecological awareness.
Since its 2022 launch by Ukrainian founder Viktoriia Velychko, the gallery operates between Ukraine and the Eastern Mediterranean. It promotes Ukrainian contemporary art while collaborating with local cultural institutions, creating a bridge between distinct artistic communities.
The exhibition is presented with the support of Serge Polivar.
