antony lyons
~ ecological and social artist, working in the UK & internationally
~ creative explorations; participatory mappings of histories, stories & imaginations
~ collaborations & dialogues with communities & creative associates
~ video-sonic & photographic works; site-specific installations
~ film-poems, sound-art, land-art & diverse weavings of art, science, places & people
~ fusions of digital media, music, voices, creative mapping & craft techniques
[ PROJECTS ]
2004-2023
[ LANDSCAPES IN BETWEEN ]
meshes of cultural & ecological transition & recovery: landscapes, biota, communities, tangible & intangible heritage
Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol, 2008
Creative Slow Residency, Quantock Hills, Somerset (Eng), 2007-8
collaboration with poet, Ralph Hoyte
Sheffield (Eng) 2009-10
Creativity Strategy for
Urban Regeneration
[A NOVA Creative Lab project]
THE BOGLE Experience (Silver Path)
Site-Specific Installation & Performance
Grizedale Forest & Sculpture Trail, Cumbria (Eng), 2004
Sheffield (Eng), 2011, Public Art Works
[A NOVA Creative Lab project, linked to Green Ribbons Network]
Competition Runner-Up Entry
Shrewsbury (Eng), 2008
[a NOVA Creative Lab project]
[ ALIVENESS MACHINES ]
landscapes+datascapes+ecology
[ WEATHER-PROOFS ]
land, climate + deep-time geopoetics
Ecology, Technology, Community, Schools
UNESCO North Devon Biosphere Reserve, 2011-12. Collaboration
"Our knowledge of nature and how it works is based on observations. What if we can't see everything? What might we be missing out on? There could be a 'hidden world' out there"
James Wells, CERN, on the search for the Higgs bosun
Urban cycle route transformation, Bristol, 2011 (direction/imagineer)
eco-design, nature-based solutions, eco-consultancy, writings
Recently featured
Unlit Path group show; Hardwick Gallery (Terrains Vagues/Slow Flows)
WILD COA SYMPHONY Eco-social residency - featured project
ENDANGERED LANDSCAPES Artist Residency begins
SARGASSO SISTERS Short Eco-Film selected for FIIN 2021 (Portugal)
INSIDE THE OUTSIDE (Lethality and Vulnerability)
ARTEFACT PROJECTS (Video-sonic works @ sound-art festival)
ARTICLE IN KONESH SPACE JOURNAL (Côa Valley)
ARTICLE IN STRAVAIG JOURNAL, No.8 (Riverrun)
CHAPTERS IN HERITAGE FUTURES BOOK (e-pub, free)
NATIONAL TRUST Residency exhibition, Orford Ness (Sensitive Chaos)
[ ECO-DESIGN:
PLACE + LANDSCAPE ]
[ SLOW TRACKS + PATHWAYS ]
movements, journeys, entanglements
Geopoetic sound-work/intermedia residency at Binaural-Nodar, Portugal, 2013
Rural Arts
CO-CREATIVE COLLECTIVES
new perspectives, recombinations, collaborations, liminal settings & sonic alchemies
[ DEISEAL ]
Ireland - ancient echoes : new vibes
[ OUT OF PLACE ]
layerings, mappings, delvings, fossickings
PEAT-Land-ings
Creative Research, in progress
more details soon
I seek deep and long-term involvements with places, landscapes and communities - especially in the contexts of current ecological and social challenges and pressures. My interests lie in activating fresh dialogues, insights and possibilities. I am drawn to the liminal water settings of rivers and coasts, the shared eco-commons, and to routes and pathways. My projects prompt conversations between insider and outsider perspectives and weave together past, present and future imaginations. I describe my creative approach as ‘geopoetic’.
With a background in eco/geo-sciences and landscape studies, my creative practice has a hybrid quality, braiding art and science approaches. Concepts of flow and deep-time are central, as is the importance of cross-cultural and intergenerational exchange - fluxes of knowledge, stories, metaphors, dreams. Research and production methods rely on extensive on-the-ground sensing, absorbing and then assembling digital video-sonic content, sculptural materials, archives, and other findings. Resulting works can include film-poems and installation spaces, usually developed during artist residencies. I have collaborated with academic projects, experimenting with transdisciplinary braidings of artistic and more formal research strategies. Co-creation with musicians and poets is increasingly a key feature.
Some collaborations are carried out in the context of the NOVA Creative Lab
Creative Research Residency & installation
Wheal Martyn Museum, Cornwall, 2018
Lead Artist - Senior Creative Fellow
International, 2015-2019
Creative research, documentation, residencies
Artist residency & installation works
National Trust & Heritage Futures, 2019
Creative Research, Public Art Sculptural Works, Limerick County (Ire), 2010 (a Deiseal project)
Exploratory Creative-Research Residency
& video works, Grand Canyon, USA, 2011
[ WATER DREAMINGS ]
flows, visual poetics & eco-cultural explorations
An evolving film-poem project, 2015-19
Part of the 'Submerged (Drowned Lands)'project
WILD WATERS, HIDDEN WATERS & HYDROCITIZENSHIP
Lead Artist, creative research
AHRC & Nova Creative Lab/Bristol
SUBMERGED (Drowned Lands): A Long View
Collaborative research for installation works
in the Somerset Levels, England
SABRINA DREAMING (Severn Estuary Tidelands)
Creative-Research Artist Residency, with CCRI,
University of Gloucestershire (Eng), 2014-16
Participation in the 'Ten Acres Of Sound' Festival, Birmingham in 2020. 'Also Listening With My Eyes' installation (based on Elan Valley artist residency)
Detail from print-on-fabric installation work - Quantock Dreaming, 2008
[ HERE COMMONS EVERYBODY ]
Communities, Land Futures + Eco-Commons
partnership projects, 2021-23
Working with multiple partners & locations. Pilot project co-funded by CCRI & Arts Council England. Themes of culture, ecology, place attachment & land equity.
Artist-residency hosted by the Elan Links heritage programme. Four season investigations of land, water, farming, ecology, dams, pipelines & more.
Artist-residency hosted by Rewilding Portugal & the Endangered Landscapes Programme. Investigations in preparation for a video-sonic work titled 'Wild Coa Symphony'.
"‘To navigate against the current, these rare qualities are needed: a spirit of adventure, courage, perseverance and passion’
Nise da Silveira