on moments and cells....

Lyndal Osborne. The Nature of Matter. Lithographs and natural materials. 1996

At first glance, Lyndal Osborne's The Nature of Matter may appear like a retail display -- reams of fabric or perhaps wrapping paper, embellished with animal prints. The hemlines of skirts, ready to wear; off the rack.

But the lithographs Osborne has created and hung here in repetition are perhaps better compared to images of cells, the particles of life; massed in their millions, comprising all that lives and grows. None touching, all in suspension. Floating. In plasma, or in nothing at all.

Lyndal Osborne. The Nature of Matter, detail.

Osborne, herself, sees the repetition as a way of understanding or representing time or the absence of same.

"This piece," she writes, "is about repetition and timelessness. Repetition is essential to suggesting the flow of time, which is a significant component of each object's full nature. Within the unfolding continuity of sameness, I wish to see an isolated form, which can emerge from or disappear into the whole structure. My examination is at a particular point in time."

The specific within the universal. The moment within the flow of time. A rock within a river. A cell within a body.

approaches

Lyndal Osborne and John Freeman. Counterpoint. 2009
Val-David, Quebec.
Outdoor installation using the natural woods, PVC tubes, pigmented prints
on polyester film, rebar and foam.

Forty-one synthetic trees are "planted" in a grid within a clearing, within a natural forest.  The false takes up residence within the true. The art within the wild. The approach is concealed.

Lyndal Osborne and John Freeman. Counterpoint. 2009

Peter von Tiesenhausen. Sanctuary. 2012
Outdoor installation at Leighton Art Centre, Calgary, Alberta.
Comprised of 1000 poles harvested from the artist's land in northern Alberta
in the wake of the Mountain Pine Beetle devastation.

One thousand dead trees resurrected in the foothills of the Rockies, forming alleys that lead the eye to the mountains beyond. Or upwards to the sky. Imposing a human perspective on the landscape. Creating an approach to the sacred.

Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin. Martha Schwartz Partners.

Outdoor installation in front of the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in Dublin. 2010

Red "trees" mark the approach to a theatre in Dublin. Creating obstacles, forcing indirection. Creating context. Lit at night like torches, lighting the way to the celebration within.

Dale Chihuly. Red Reeds. Glass.
Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Spiky reeds of glass -- shards -- growing in a garden. Reaching upward, red slivers piercing the air. Impaling the sky. Approaching the light.






See more works by Peter von Tiesenhausen in the following posts on this blog: singed; burning man; and a book of days.  See more of Lyndal Osborne at spinners; or collecting as art practice.

Lyndal Osborne, Spinners

Lyndal Osborne. Spinners.
Mixed media installation: sage, day lilies, rhubarb seeds, dogwood,
lime grass, cattail, wire, yellow willow, spear grass, gaillardia, palm leaves.

In the artist's words:

"Direct relationship with the natural world led me to choose materials with which I was very familiar: cattail and spear grass growing alongside the road; rhubarb, day lilies, lime grass and gaillardia seeds from the garden; sage, palm, dogwood and reeds from the river and surrounding environment; and discarded telephone wire. I was interested in the fact that they are commonplace and an immediate part of my life in winter walks and everyday engagements with my garden during the summer. I feel that the knowledge of these materials is gained through the senses, and the ephemeral and perishable nature of the materials reflects on my desire to make that process of life and death an integral part of the art. The fragile nature of the material as it is marked by time gives a physical appearance to the surfaces which activates our sense of touch and smell."




For more of Osborne's work, go to www.lyndalosborne.com. Or see other posts on this blog: collecting as art practice; and approaches.

collecting as art practice

Kate MccGwire, braided magpie feathers.

Kate MccGwire is an artist who is "infatuated with" her materials: feathers, mostly.

Pigeon feathers, white as flame or dappled with the colours of the earth. Crow feathers of light-eating black. Magpie feathers: a dark aurora, a rainbow dipped in night.

She sources them from local farmers, or finds them for herself walking by the river with her dog each morning in London. She describes herself as a "gatherer, hoarder, collector and creator." 

MccGwire says: “The business of collecting the materials and creating the works feels satisfyingly intertwined.... I find that handling, cleaning and sorting enables you to understand your materials on a more intimate level. By learning and creating through touch you can get a much better feel for the work. The process of making becomes more sensory, even meditative, and you can lose yourself in the act.”

An ocean and a continent away, Canadian artist Lyndal Osborne engages in a similar process. In walking by a river -- daily, meditatively -- she finds her medium. She finds poetry in the forms and textures of nature: stalks and seed pods, leaves, wasps' nests, flower heads, roots and berries, and organics of all sorts. She gathers them, dries them, sorts them, and keeps them in her own personal "natural history museum" in her home. For Osborne, this is an integral part of the artmaking. Building a deeper understanding of the materials, forging new associations between one thing and another, creating new connections. Making meanings.

For both of these artists, understanding comes through the material.

Lyndal Osborne. Surge. 1995.

* Quotes about/by Kate MccGwire are from Matilda Lundberg, Odalisque magazine, 2013-04-04.

** Lyndal Osborne information is based on an artist's talk she gave several years ago, as well as a recent article in Galleries West magazine: "Natural Abundance: Lyndal Osborne's Lyrical Vision". Summer 2013.

For more posts about Lyndal Osborne, see spinners; or approaches. See more of Kate MccGwire's work in the following posts: the luminescence of the night sky; holy waters; and out of the fire.