In this wonderful video, celebrated artist Camie Lyons talks to Maria Stoljar from Talking with Painters about her recent residency in Hill End and the works that she produced as a result, which can be seen in her current exhibition ‘A physical response’ at Australian Galleries Sydney.
Camie Lyons
A Physical Response
17 March – 5 April 2020
Sydney based artist Camie Lyons works across a variety of mediums including sculpture, painting and drawing. Her work is fluid and physical, a reflection of her training in contemporary dance, and her innate understanding of form and movement.
In 2018 Camie Lyons participated in the Hill End Artists in Residence Program. An in-depth creative experience and physical exploration of her creative process which allowed complete immersion into her practice. She found herself free to experiment with found and natural objects; clay, branches, sticks, stones and coloured ochres. The result is a collection of works that connect to the natural world and acknowledge the history and psyche of Hill End. Exhibited in October 2019 at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Camie Lyons: A physical response was the first exhibition that the artist has shown in a public gallery. Australian Galleries is delighted to present this powerful series of work as Camie’s first solo exhibition in our Sydney gallery.
“I think the most powerful thing about an artist residency is the opportunity to be taken out of regular life, to be dropped in a place that’s very ‘other’ with nothing to do but make and create. Away from the interruptions of ‘adulting’ and mothering, the days were all mine. I could read all night, create all day without interruption. I relished and revelled in the freedom and I exhausted myself physically, experimenting all day.” – Camie Lyons
‘A physical response, is the beginning of a new-found language for the artist, a rich seam of ‘gold’ which will inform her practice for many years to come… Without ready access to shops and supplies, Camie collected materials from the local landscape. Sticks, branches, clay, stones, found wire and rusted steel became part of an arsenal of materials that fuelled a period of intense artistic activity. When the wrong type of drawing paper arrived, stiff and unyielding, Camie dragged it through the bush, exposed it to the elements, and then began to dig and scrape into its surface. The works Camie created in Hill End represent a physical response to the place, but also an emotional one… As well as creating her well-known coiled wire sketches and maquettes, Hill End afforded Camie the time and space to explore new areas of interest, such as the figure in relation to the landscape. The more Camie explored these figurative forms, the more she could see. She reflects: “the figure was of this landscape, every tree and fallen branch a form, sprouting another form, attached to another form. I felt I was quietly surrounded by these souls and so never felt lonely.”
– Excerpts from essay by Sarah Gurich, Director, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, October 2019