Saving the Arctic

Having just returned from a climate expedition to Svalbard and the Arctic Circle. Here I was confronted with such an extraordinary change in the place since I was last there. It has given me a newfound imperative to help those working to change humanity's leaders. I am not sure how this will manifest just yet, but as an artist, I will continue to make my art with a grounded story that acknowledges the time of rapid change we find ourselves living in.

During my trip, I continued my 'From the Bow' my daily drawing project. I am excited every time I travel on a vessel. It gives me a chance to explore my drawing in situ, taking me away from the day-to-day of life on the ship, and focus on what is ahead.

Each morning (usually around 6 am), I sit at the bow (or as close as I can get) and draw what is directly ahead. Drawing this view can be complicated, especially if the captain decides to change direction mid drawing, but that is part of the challenge.

On this journey, I felt that I wanted to extend my explorations at BigCi with cyanotypes and ice. So I brought along a series of prepared papers for a new small project that was easy to transport. For the ice, I wanted to use glacial ice. The fast-melting glaciers have a time memory, and I wanted to capture this memory of water and time in my paper. As the ice melted on the cyanotype, it embedded part of its story in the paper's fabric. I used different time exposures to reflect on what is a time of change from 'deep time' to 'contemporary time'.

At home, I have continued to be inspired through drawings and paintings as I work on my ideas in the studio…

Performative installation

Catharsis

Exhibition image Of Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger by Tina Allen

Catharsis is a performative installation that will bring a cathartic end to the morning of my late husband, Jens H Lichtenberger. During his short illness and untimely death 8 years ago, I collected many objects, video and sound that speak to not only the medical experience but also his journey until his death. This is an exploration of not just Jens, his life and his passing, of the environmental legacy of hospitalisation and home care, but of his absence from myself and others.

After his death, I collected and compiled many of his photographic artworks and his lifetime of writing, and I produced a book titled ‘I Kicked a Stone in Metaphor’. I will use this book as a muse to explore my connection to him and his passing. I will examine and engage with the single use of materials that this final life journey creates.

With the exhibition falling through our personal ‘Festival of Us’, beginning with my birthday (May 13), our wedding anniversary (May 19), and ending with his birthday (May 20), this timely exhibition will explore the joys and associated loss of this companionship.

I will work (Friday to Sunday) throughout the exhibition to transform the Backroom Gallery Space into an installation that develops towards an unknown immersive finale.

Lea Kannar-Lichtenberger in her first performative installation will gradually transform the Backroom Gallery space into a Cathartic journey that explores through various media the passing of Jens H Lichtenberger

Articulate Gallery from May 2 until May 25

Lea will be on site working as a performative artist from 11am until 4pm Fri, Sat, Sun

Articulate Gallery Parramatta Road Leichhardt     

CATHARSIS.pdf

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