Antony Lyons

~ Ecological & social artist; imagineer; visionaire; based longterm in Bristol; from Ireland

~ Poetic geographer - of landscapes, waterscapes, liminal zones - journeys in time & space

~ VideoSonic & photographic works; site-specific sculptural installations

~ Film-poems, sound-art, land-art; diverse weavings of art & science & poetic imagination

~ Fusions of imagery, audio field-recordings, voices, music, archives

~ Creative explorations, stories & deep-time contemplations; mappings & distillations in/from places

~ Collaborations, dialogues & encounters with other wanderers & wonderers

[ PROJECTS ]

2004-2024  

JOURNAL 
blog postshttp://antonylyons.blogspot.com/

[ LANDSCAPES IN BETWEEN ]

meshes of cultural & ecological transition & recovery: landscapes, ecology, communities, art, tangible & intangible heritage

DISPLACEMENT-EXTRACTION

Knowle West Media Centre, Bristol, 2008

QUANTOCK DREAMING

Creative Slow Residency, Quantock Hills, Somerset (Eng), 2007-8

collaboration with poet, Ralph Hoyte

GREEN RIBBONS Network

Sheffield (Eng) 2009-10

Creativity Strategy for

Urban Regeneration

[A NOVA Creative Lab  project]

SPOON-LAND

UWE Gallery

Bristol, UK 2008

part of Group Show

THE BOGLE Experience (Silver Path)

Site-Specific Installation & Performance

Grizedale Forest & Sculpture Trail, Cumbria (Eng), 2004

PARK-LAND

Sheffield (Eng), 2011, Public Art Works

[A NOVA Creative Lab project, linked to Green Ribbons Network]

ELEVENMINUTES Urban Sculpture Trail

Bristol, 2006

(a NOVA Creative Lab project)

DARWIN 200 Geo-Garden

Competition Runner-Up Entry

Shrewsbury (Eng), 2008

[a NOVA Creative Lab project]

SOTE - Competition

Lincolnshire Coast (Eng), 2011

[a NOVA Creative Lab project]

LOVELY WEATHER

Slow Residency/ Deep Mapping (Climate Change)

Donegal, Ireland 2010-11

[ ALIVENESS MACHINES ]

landscapes+ creative datascapes+ecology

[ WEATHER-PROOFS ]

art, climate + deep-time geopoetics

CONFLUENCE Project

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

RIVER FROME GREENWAY

Urban cycle route transformation, Bristol, 2011 (direction/imagineer)

ECO-DESIGNS, WATER, SUDS etc

eco-design, nature-based solutions, eco-consultancy, writings

SALT-Land-ings

Creative Research

Newlyn Gallery, Cornwall, 2012

& follow-on fieldwork in France & Portugal, 2022/3 more details soon

[ ECO-DESIGN:

CREATIVE PLACEs + LANDSCAPE ]

[ SLOW TRACKS + PATHWAYS ]

movements, journeys, geopoetic assemblages

SACRED WAYS - SACRED WATERS

Geopoetic sound-work/intermedia residency at Binaural-Nodar, Portugal, 2013

Rural Arts

[ CO-CREATIVE COLLECTIVES ]

[ NOVA Creative Lab ]

new perspectives, recombinations, collaborations, liminal settings & sonic alchemies

[ DEISEAL ]

Ireland - ancient echoes : new vibes

[ OUT OF PLACE ]

layerings, creative mappings, archives, delvings, fossickings

PEAT-Land-ings

Creative Research, in progress

more details soon

My interests lie in activating fresh dialogues, insights and possibilities - through extended involvements with places, landscape processes and human activities, especially in the contexts of current ecological and social challenges and pressures. I am drawn to the liminal and atmospheric watery settings of rivers, lakes, coasts; the shared ecological 'commons'; and to edgelands, wastelands, abandoned sites - all places that can spark inspirations for future paths. My projects prompt conversations between insider (local) and outsider (itinerant) perspectives and weave together past, present and future imaginations. I describe my creative approach as both ‘geopoetic’ and 'deep mapping'.


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 an interest in observing the world at different, fractal, scales. For me, spirit-of-place is linked to cross-cultural and intergenerational exchange - dynamic streams of knowledge, stories, memories, metaphors, dreams. Research and production methods are based on extensive on-the-ground sensing, absorbing and then assembling video-sonic content, sculptural materials, archives, and other findings. Resulting site-specific works can include film-poems and installation spaces, usually developed during artist residencies. I have collaborated with many academic research projects, introducing creative experiments, provocations and alternative documentary processes.


Some collaborations are carried out in the context of the NOVA Creative Lab

LIMBO LANDSCAPE LAB 1

CLAY-Land-ing

Creative Research Residency & installation

Wheal Martyn Museum, Cornwall, 2018

HERITAGE FUTURES

Lead Artist - Senior Creative Fellow

International, 2015-2019

Creative research, documentation, residencies

LIMBO LANDSCAPE LAB 2

SENSITIVE CHAOS, Orford Ness

Artist residency & installation works

National Trust & Heritage Futures, 2019

RIVER SHANNON FLEETS

Creative Research, Public Art Sculptural Works, Limerick County (Ire), 2010  (a Deiseal project)

COLORADO RIVER CONJECTURES

Exploratory Creative-Research Residency

& video works, Grand Canyon, USA, 2011

[ WATER DREAMINGS ]

flows, liminality & eco-cultural creative explorations

TRANSGRESSION (Rising Waters)

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

TIDAL TWINNING International Exchange Network 
Severn Estuary (Eng) + Wadden Sea (NL)
2012-17: Coastal artistic & academic network
Participant artisthttps://tidalcultures.wordpress.com/workshop-3/https://tidalcultures.wordpress.com/workshop-3/shapeimage_21_link_0

Ten Acres of Sound

Participation in the 'Ten Acres Of Sound' Festival, Birmingham in 2020. 'Also Listening With My Eyes' installation (based on Elan Valley artist residency)

MOVING IMAGE 
video-sonicshttps://vimeo.com/novadada
IN PRINT 
publicationsenquiry.html

Detail from print-on-fabric installation work - Quantock Dreaming, 2008

[ HERE COMMONS EVERYBODY ]

Communities, Creative Land Futures + Eco-Commons

partnership projects, 2021-23

HERE COMMONS EVERYBODY

Working with multiple partners & locations. Pilot project co-funded by CCRI & Arts Council England. Themes of culture, ecology, place attachment & land equity.

SOUNDWORKS 
Soundcloudhttps://soundcloud.com/novaformula

LONG EXPOSURE: ELAN VALLEY, WALES

Artist-residency hosted by the Elan Links heritage programme. Four season investigations of land, water, farming, ecology, dams, pipelines & more.

COA VALLEY REWILDING

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

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