LILY MORRIS

Statement

Ex avibus

This series exists to question our collective flight, and the flight path of this historic paradigm shift we find ourselves in the midst of: the Covid-19 pandemic.  The works sit in the plot shift of a story, in the eye of an un-trackable storm, where no path of devastation is clear, where a battle of hope, fear and confusion synchronize as the only constant.  Within this upheaval and tension at the heart of my series, I reach back to the ancient art of augury, ex avibus -- divination based on the flight path and position of birds.  The augur of antiquity would prophesize from the birds whether political actions were sanctioned and approved by the will of the Gods. 

Holed up at home, plans cancelled, the world outside helplessly at the mercy of a novel virus threatening our lives and livelihoods, we watch as the world transforms to the soundtrack of global solidarity, global discord, and hysterical news. As we attempt to chart a new course into the future, Ex avibus invites you to look to the birds -- their ferocity, their magic of flight, their proximity to both the heavens and the tumult of the terrestrial realm. We stand today to devine not the auspices of the old Gods, but a more complex reality: one where we must plot a path forward that recognizes the scientific, the historical, the known and the unknown amidst a deeply uncertain future.

Biography

Lily Morris grew up on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, attended Studio Art Centers International in Florence Italy in 2007 and graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston MA in 2009. Through a consistent study of figurative realism, she has investigated themes such as identity through social media, Intimacy, as well as the contemporary state of the American dream.  She currently lives and works in Chatham, NY.