Joanne Lyons Spectre

May 5 - June 10, 2006

Artist Talk and Opening: Friday May 5th at 7:00 pm

Spectre evolved from numerous mixed media and lens-based projects exploring how we look at one another and ourselves as a way to understand our position in the world we live in. Manufactured and endlessly duplicated mannequins embody our very public, profit-driven consumer culture, yet when I photographed these discarded mannequins, I saw private, individual expressions of emotion. Digital manipulations and production decisions emphasized oppositional tensions, allowing the large-scale portraits to assert their own authority as they oscillate between real and artificial, glamorously beautiful and chillingly disturbing.

Saskatoon artist Joanne Lyons works in mixed media and photo-based installations. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Saskatchewan, and has exhibited her work nationally. Previous projects include Look At Me, an installation of 200 party dresses, with opportunities for viewers to wear them, and Skin Deep, large-scale masked portraits of the outrageously adorned.