10 Chancery Lane Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Australian artist Lindy Lee. In this exhibition the artist presents a new series of bronze and metal works.
The bronze fire stones have evolved from Lindy Lee's 'flung ink' painting practice. The tradition of 'fling ink' is an ancient Chinese painting technique which is based on spontaneity. After a period of meditation, the artist takes up a cup of ink and splashes it across paper. Although the marks appear to be made from chance, the spiritual understanding is that the patterns formed are caused from the interconnection of all conditions that exist in the universe in that moment. Within these marks is embodied the energy and totality of the entire cosmos.
Lindy Lee has expanded this tradition to incorporate the flinging of molten bronze to create enigmatic shapes which are then used to create sculptural wall works. The fire stone sculptures take the process even further to make three dimensional forms which take on the energy and distortion created by intense heat. These sculptures are riven with fire, reminiscent of the flaming mystical wish-fulfilling pearls treasured by Chinese dragons.
Lindy Lee is one of Australia’s foremost contemporary artists, with a career spanning three decades in Australia and internationally. Born in Brisbane, Lee’s works from the 1980s began an ongoing investigation into issues of selfhood, identity and authenticity via concepts of the copy and the original. Lee studied at The Chelsea School of Art, London in 1979–80, at SCA from 1981 to 1984 and later at UNSW. In 2001, a monograph on her work by Benjamin Gennochio and Melissa Chiu was published by Fine Arts Press and Craftsman House, Sydney. In 2008 Lee was the subject of an ABC TV documentary for the 'Artists at Work' series.
Solo exhibitions include: 'Flowers Fall', 10 Chancery Lane, Hong Kong; 'Birth & Death', Artspace, Sydney; 'Narrow Road to the Interior', Atrium Space, MITA, Australian High Commission, Singapore; 'No Up, No Down, I am the Ten Thousand Things', AGNSW, Sydney. Group exhibitions include: 'Post Eden', Today Art Museum, Beijing 2010; 'Process/Journey', Australian Embasssy, Redgate Gallery, Beijing 2008; 'OPEN07', Venice, Italy 2007; 'Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal 2005: Image & Imagination', Montréal, Quebec, Canada 2005; 'Buddha: Radiant Awakening', AGBSW, Sydney 2002; 'Three Views of Emptiness: Buddhism and the art of Tim Johnson', Lindy Lee and Peter Tyndall, Monash University Museum of Art, Victoria 2001; 'Spirit + Place', MCA, Sydney 1997; and 'Photography is Dead, Long Live Photography', MCA, Sydney.
About the artist:
Lindy Lee was recently awarded the New Century Garden commission to create a new public space in Sydney’s Chinatown. Lee is a founding member of Gallery 4A and she is currently a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. She is a former board member of Artspace and the Australian Centre of Photography, former president of the Asian Australian Artists Association and former deputy chair of the Visual Arts and Craft Fund, Australia Council. Lee’s work is held in a number of private and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Image: © Lindy Lee, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery
