Magic and Loss: Magic and Loss

The exhibition’s title is taken from a 1992 album by Lou Reed. The album
consists of a sequence of gritty, downbeat songs, which may account for its
relative obscurity. But I and many others have found it, while tough going in

some respects, ultimately emotionally enriching.

It was shaped by Reed’s experience of the illness and death of two people
close to him. One was a mentor, the extraordinary singer-songwriter Jerry
Felder, better known as Doc Pomus. The other was someone referred to only

as Rita, whose identity has not been pinned down.

Reed’s response is complex. Rather than simply mourning, he was prompted to
reflect on the endless challenges and occasional brilliance we encounter in life,
and on how to negotiate the inevitability of transience and loss. In living, he

suggests, beauty and bleakness are intertwined.

The gallery asked artists if they would like to make or choose a work that they
feel relates to the themes of Magic and Loss or, perhaps, a work of theirs that is
significantly influenced by a song or an album they hold particularly dear.

I’d like to thank the artists for agreeing to engage with the idea, and thanks as
well to Kean Kavanagh, who performs music from the album on the opening
night. Magic and Loss, the exhibition, is dedicated to all those beings, we have

loved and lost, as we live our lives.

- Kevin J Kavanagh