Antony Lyons
~ Ecological & social artist; imagineer; visionaire; from Ireland; based in the UK
~ Landscapes, waterscapes, liminal zones - in time & space
~ Creative explorations & deep-time contemplations; mappings & distillations from places, stories, journeys
~ Collaborations, dialogues & encounters with other wanderers & wonderers
~ Video-sonic & photographic works; site-specific sculptural installations
~ Film-poems, sound-art, land-art; diverse weavings of art & science, imagination & fancy
~ Fusions of visuals, music, voices, field-recordings, archives
[ PROJECTS ]
2004-2023
[ LANDSCAPES IN BETWEEN ]
meshes of cultural & ecological transition & recovery: landscapes, ecology, communities, art, 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+ creative datascapes+ecology
[ WEATHER-PROOFS ]
art, 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
COMPLETION OF 'HABITAT-TREASURE HOUSE Land Art Commission, Portugal
WATERSHED Exhibition group show, MAC Birmingham (collaboration with Nikki Sheth)
UNLIT PATH EXHIBITION group show; Hardwick Gallery (Terrains Vagues/Slow Flows)
WILD COA SYMPHONY Eco-social residency report - featured project, ELSP
ENDANGERED LANDSCAPES Artist Residency begins; Rewilding Portugal & ELSP
SARGASSO SISTERS Short Eco-Poetic Film selected for FIIN 2021 Film Festival
INSIDE THE OUTSIDE Online Curated Photo-Gallery (Lethality and Vulnerability)
ARTEFACT PROJECTS (6 short video-sonic works in Ten Acres of Sound festival)
ARTICLE IN KONESH SPACE JOURNAL (Creative reflections on Côa Valley, Portugal))
CHAPTERS IN HERITAGE FUTURES BOOK (e-pub, free) Lead Artist writings
NATIONAL TRUST Artist Residency Exhibition, Orford Ness (Sensitive Chaos)
[ ECO-DESIGN:
CREATIVE PLACEs + LANDSCAPE ]
[ SLOW TRACKS + PATHWAYS ]
movements, journeys, geopoetic assemblages
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, 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 - places that can spark inspirations for change. My projects prompt conversations between insider (local) and outsider (itinerant) perspectives and weave together past, present and future imaginations. I often 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 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 works can include film-poems and installation spaces, usually developed during artist residencies. I have collaborated with academic research projects, introducing creative experiments, provocations and alternative documentary processes.
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, liminality & eco-cultural creative 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, Creative 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.
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.
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
RECENT HIGHLIGHTS =>