Works tune into historical legacy
AN EXHIBITION can be developed through the translation of personal experiences into visual form.
It can be the shared outcomes from a journey of discovery utilising a particular medium or exploring a specific discipline.
A current local exhibition acts as an illuminating “show and tell” by presenting the culmination of a residency program that opened the artist to new possibilities and directions.
The Arts Gallery at the University of Southern Queensland is hosting an exhibition that marks an important milestone in the life of local artist, Kris Lyon.
“Lo Strato: Time in Tuscany” documents her responses to a beautiful and significant part of Italy.
In 2019, Lyon participated in a residency for artists situated at La Macina di San Cresci, part of a complex attached to a restored Romanesque church near the town of Greve in Chianti.
Lyon soon tuned into the historical legacy of the region such as the elegant simplicity of Etruscan figurative terracotta sculptures and the burnished black bucchero vessels seen reflected in her funerary idol and goddess.
Small button-like shapes stamped with classical Roman heads salute antique coinage, while a terracotta shell pays homage to Botticelli’s Birth of Venus at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Geological layers are referenced in a series of stonelike forms and strata profiles using stoneware, terracotta, and raku.
A boxed presentation of “rubble” suggests relic fragments trapped in walls and cobblestone pavements.
An interest in architecture and habitat is translated through a series of small clay dwellings.
The rustic charm and character of towers, arches, and groups of village houses can be seen in the angular and rounded forms that seem shaped by the burden of history.
This is most tangible in the series of little structures that the artist made in situ from locally sourced chalky pink terracotta.
In the work Dotting the Hillside: Looking to San Gimignano, the shapes become more abstract and symbolic.
The exhibition encapsulates the essence of the artist’s experiences while acknowledging with gratitude the opportunity to create precious memories to share.
In the corridor cross section beyond the Arts Gallery, several display cases contain changing pop-up artist book exhibitions by current and past students from the USQ Visual Arts Printmaking studio.
Artist books are enjoying a resurgence of interest and popularity as vehicles for artistic expression.
Although the form of the book is used as inspiration it acts as the point of departure for flights of the imagination.
The artist’s intention utilising illustration, design, aspects of various printmaking techniques as well as drawing, photography, painting, and sculptural properties turn the book into an art object.
The works on display embrace these skills and are topical and cleverly detailed, combining text, cartography, and intricate paper folding to create small visual statements that become collectable treasures.