Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger
Interview by Kate Schwarting, Programs Manager
KS: What inspired your interest in science and art?
LK: I have always had an affinity with the environment growing up in Australia where fires and drought give way to the coastal abundance, this has created in me an awareness surrounding life’s fragility. I cannot remember a time when I was not interested in science, for over 20 years my favourite magazine has been New Scientist. It allows me to understand issues that can sometimes be complicated and also keeps me up with what is happening globally.
In 2012 I began to explore evolution through the writings of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. This lead to a series of works on the Galapagos Tortoise and how humans have impacted on their very existence.
But the real game changer for me was an opportunity in 2014 for a residency at SVA (School of Visual Arts) in New York, what a mind blowing experience that was, not just in how I saw life but also it significantly changed how I approached my art practice.
Whilst studying for my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) at SCA (Sydney College of the Arts) University of Sydney I returned to SVA in 2015. This academic examination along with the beginning of my onsite island investigations increased my environmental awareness. Through my art practice the issues facing the oceans globally have become the driver for my interest in the relationships of science and how artists can give these issues a voice.
LK: I have always had an affinity with the environment growing up in Australia where fires and drought give way to the coastal abundance, this has created in me an awareness surrounding life’s fragility. I cannot remember a time when I was not interested in science, for over 20 years my favourite magazine has been New Scientist. It allows me to understand issues that can sometimes be complicated and also keeps me up with what is happening globally.
In 2012 I began to explore evolution through the writings of Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin. This lead to a series of works on the Galapagos Tortoise and how humans have impacted on their very existence.
But the real game changer for me was an opportunity in 2014 for a residency at SVA (School of Visual Arts) in New York, what a mind blowing experience that was, not just in how I saw life but also it significantly changed how I approached my art practice.
Whilst studying for my MFA (Master of Fine Arts) at SCA (Sydney College of the Arts) University of Sydney I returned to SVA in 2015. This academic examination along with the beginning of my onsite island investigations increased my environmental awareness. Through my art practice the issues facing the oceans globally have become the driver for my interest in the relationships of science and how artists can give these issues a voice.
KS: How do you address human impact on the environment in your work?
LK: Human impact sits at the core of my artistic examinations, it manifests in multiple forms, sometimes as simply as a piece of text listing the species loss, however mostly I layer my works like in Beyond Memory II 2012 where I am using traditional printmaking techniques to question the impact of humans in the Galapagos Islands. The use of text is important to my art practice, it might not always be apparent in works such as Towards Dystopia 2015, where it is minute but that is part of the question about what we don’t see that surrounds us. Or it could be on a grand scale as in works like Corpses of the Everyday 2015 where the size is important to be confronted by the scale of the problem.
In my recent solo exhibition at Edith Cowan University in Perth I used a combination of video photography and ice to create climate change art and an immersive experience. The ice Distorted Truths 2017 had been imbedded with the debris collected from my time on Deception Island Antarctica this ephemeral work disgorged its human evidence during the exhibition which was finally left to float in an oversized petri dish. Scale was really what I wanted to bring to the fore, so everything was oversized, the photography, the video and sound installations.
I feel we really need to be immersed in the problem before we will be as individuals moved to make a change how we live our lives, my work Gagged 2015 is one of my most confronting works in the way it uses the human to evoke the wildlife, in spired by text from Carl Saffina it takes the viewer into a very uncomfortable place.
LK: Human impact sits at the core of my artistic examinations, it manifests in multiple forms, sometimes as simply as a piece of text listing the species loss, however mostly I layer my works like in Beyond Memory II 2012 where I am using traditional printmaking techniques to question the impact of humans in the Galapagos Islands. The use of text is important to my art practice, it might not always be apparent in works such as Towards Dystopia 2015, where it is minute but that is part of the question about what we don’t see that surrounds us. Or it could be on a grand scale as in works like Corpses of the Everyday 2015 where the size is important to be confronted by the scale of the problem.
In my recent solo exhibition at Edith Cowan University in Perth I used a combination of video photography and ice to create climate change art and an immersive experience. The ice Distorted Truths 2017 had been imbedded with the debris collected from my time on Deception Island Antarctica this ephemeral work disgorged its human evidence during the exhibition which was finally left to float in an oversized petri dish. Scale was really what I wanted to bring to the fore, so everything was oversized, the photography, the video and sound installations.
I feel we really need to be immersed in the problem before we will be as individuals moved to make a change how we live our lives, my work Gagged 2015 is one of my most confronting works in the way it uses the human to evoke the wildlife, in spired by text from Carl Saffina it takes the viewer into a very uncomfortable place.
Distorted Truths, 2018, Ephemeral installation Ice, Petri dish, ocean debris from Deception Island water and video or a melting glacier on Deception Island, filmed on Canon G5 Video runtime loop 1min, Size 100 x 120 x 120 cm
KS: Travel plays an important role in your work. How has your art practice evolved through-out your experiences?
LK: Initially it was about what I brought away from the places I visited, taking photos, creating drawings that I would then work on back at my studio. Then I began to collect the plastics that were being washed ashore in the islands I visited. I would make single walks and collect as much as I could and photograph them to create a catalogue of the existence in the sand. These pieces I collected from the beaches I would bring home and work with them to create artworks.
Now I am working on what I can take to the place to record, things that speak about our consumerist culture and its impact from a distance. Works such as Deception I & II Berlin 2017, did just that, taking a video of a street scene and then projecting it on to a melting glacier on Deception Island. This for me created a loop, one that confronts the everyday with the abstract notion of a melting glacier. It has been quite a journey but I am so happy with the final work.
My papers have changed a little to and they are currently dealing with the impact the tourist industry is having globally but specifically on these places and others. In works such as Livingston I Presume 2017, I create a visual distortion by photographing through binoculars, this gives you the view from the perspective of the colonialist who first laid eyes on these places. Yet it also asks the question if this is how we should be seeing the more fragile places… from a distance
LK: Initially it was about what I brought away from the places I visited, taking photos, creating drawings that I would then work on back at my studio. Then I began to collect the plastics that were being washed ashore in the islands I visited. I would make single walks and collect as much as I could and photograph them to create a catalogue of the existence in the sand. These pieces I collected from the beaches I would bring home and work with them to create artworks.
Now I am working on what I can take to the place to record, things that speak about our consumerist culture and its impact from a distance. Works such as Deception I & II Berlin 2017, did just that, taking a video of a street scene and then projecting it on to a melting glacier on Deception Island. This for me created a loop, one that confronts the everyday with the abstract notion of a melting glacier. It has been quite a journey but I am so happy with the final work.
My papers have changed a little to and they are currently dealing with the impact the tourist industry is having globally but specifically on these places and others. In works such as Livingston I Presume 2017, I create a visual distortion by photographing through binoculars, this gives you the view from the perspective of the colonialist who first laid eyes on these places. Yet it also asks the question if this is how we should be seeing the more fragile places… from a distance
Colliding Worlds, 2014, 41 laser engraved petri dishes and plinth 120 x 120 x 45cm
Towards Dystopia, 2015
Water Installation, film, and sound; 1min looping video projection, ceramics - high fired with decals, Perspex Petri dish 120 x30 cm, Perspex fish tank 150 x20 x15 cm, transparent piping, fountain pump, milk crate, beach debris collected from Lord Howe Island, highly salted water and a tea urn. Size varies
KS: Do you have any projects or exhibitions you are working on?
LK: I have expanded my art practice to include giving papers and public lectures about my research. By using my art to create a point of connection to the audience, this allows me to share with others the impact we have in areas that they may never visit but which are vital to the health of our planet.
I am currently creating work for a solo exhibition coming up in February 2019 in Brisbane Australia, so at present I am working to create larger scale ceramic impressions of coral that relate to my work Towards Dystopia 2015. These will be works that you have to walk through ones that take the viewer closer to the reef and what is happening in the oceans. They will have text in the same fashion as the ones already completed but will also include the catalogue of debris from my collections in the Faroe Islands and Deception Island.
I am also eagerly awaiting the release of my first peer reviewed publication titled Beyond the Verbiage: consumerism through tourism and its manifestations in small islands and remote places, which will be available in the coming month.
LK: I have expanded my art practice to include giving papers and public lectures about my research. By using my art to create a point of connection to the audience, this allows me to share with others the impact we have in areas that they may never visit but which are vital to the health of our planet.
I am currently creating work for a solo exhibition coming up in February 2019 in Brisbane Australia, so at present I am working to create larger scale ceramic impressions of coral that relate to my work Towards Dystopia 2015. These will be works that you have to walk through ones that take the viewer closer to the reef and what is happening in the oceans. They will have text in the same fashion as the ones already completed but will also include the catalogue of debris from my collections in the Faroe Islands and Deception Island.
I am also eagerly awaiting the release of my first peer reviewed publication titled Beyond the Verbiage: consumerism through tourism and its manifestations in small islands and remote places, which will be available in the coming month.