antony lyons
~ environmental artist, working in the UK and internationally
~ creative involvements with places of ecological and social transition and recovery
~ video-sonic and photographic works; site-specific installations
~ collaborations and dialogues with communities and creatives
~ film-poems and eco-documentaries
[ PROJECTS ]
2004-2021
[ LANDSCAPES IN BETWEEN ]
Meshes of cultural and ecological transition and 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 in...
ENDANGERED LANDSCAPES Artist Residency begins
SARGASSO SISTERS Short 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)
[ 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 and 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
Based in the UK, and working internationally, my creative practice incorporates video/photographic works and site-specific installations. My projects are deep explorations of landscapes, ecologies and nature-culture dynamics. Often working in the contexts of places experiencing significant environmental and social change, my interests lie in activating fresh 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 practice 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 content, sculptural materials, archives, and other findings. Resulting works can include film-poems and installation spaces, usually developed in the context of artist residency situations. Writings also play a big part. I collaborate with academic researchers, 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 and 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
[ new programme:
HERE COMMONS EVERYBODY ]
Land Futures+Eco-Commons partnership projects, 2021-23
Working with multiple partners and locations. Pilot is co-funded by CCRI and Arts Council England. Themes of culture, ecology and land equity.
Artist-residency hosted by the Elan Links heritage programme. Four season investigations of land, water, farming, ecology, dams, pipes and more.
Artist-residency hosted by Rewilding Portugal and the Endangered Landscapes Programme. Investigations in preparation for a video-sonic 'Wild Coa Symphony'.
"‘To navigate against the current, these rare qualities are needed: a spirit of adventure, courage, perseverance and passion’
Nise da Silveira