OLD LIE NEW GROUND

ARTSPACE returned to regular hours on January 7th with the opening of OLD LIE NEW GROUND, an exhibition of three new works by Steve Lyons. Lyons recreates photographic images by merging segmented sculptural installations through the fixed viewpoint of a security camera feed into a TV monitor. The works play with our sense of visual perception as we try to make sense of the relationship between two- and three- dimensionality. By creating a sculpture that is more intelligible in its flat form, his work plays with the common relationship between installation and documentation.

Lyons’ past work Loch Ness, a recreation a photograph of the 1965 Loch Ness Investigation Bureau, has been exhibited widely, from Windsor to Paris. His sculptures are constructed entirely on site and are designed to be temporary. With this new work, Lyons is “inscribing the gallery’s recent past” into his process by using materials found in the gallery.

Lyons raided our basement and storage closets for supplies and, in preparation for his residency, we were asked to save all sweepings for his use. In addition, the title of the exhibition is a re-arrangement of the vinyl text from Elinor Whidden’s show VOYAGEUR, and those who attended our New Year’s Eve event may recognize parts of the “We Live Here Too” sign and the celebratory confetti stars.

The remnants accumulated in Artist-Run Centres often carries a rich history and, indeed ARTSPACE, being among the first wave of established ARCs, has a long past to remember. In recent years, ARTSPACE has been working to salvage its once flooded archive, but Lyons’ work accesses and reactivates materials from an alternate archive. This archive of stuff is rarely catalogued or itemized. It requires the memory of our members for meaning.

Come in and see if you recognize anything!