#colin lyons

[seniorinternaut]

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp is on Zoom now. by Andrea Kastner & Colin Lyons (The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt, 1632)

[lundsandbyerlys]

Sumo mandarins: Possibly the sweetest fruit you’ll ever eat!

Colin Lyons, our produce buyer, shares the amazing story of the Sumo:

Here in the Lunds and Byerly’s produce department, we are always on the hunt, constantly searching for the next big thing. This ceaseless pursuit has turned up treasures like the season’s finest blackberry, the jumbo strawberry, the opal apple and even Amaize sweet corn.

We look for these items not only because we are produce nerds – passionate about great tasting, unique items – but also because we truly love offering the latest and greatest in our stores. I believe our customers, in turn, love to introduce these same items to their friends and family. Produce is hip, fun and meant to be shared.

There is one item for me that truly stands out in this best-of-the-best group. Returning by popular demand is the Sumo! Sumo is a piece of citrus whose creation story is as amazing as its flavor. 

More than 40 years ago, a citrus grower from the Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan had an idea for a new hybrid fruit. He wanted to combine the big size and juicy sweet flavor of the navel orange with the easy-to-peel rind of the Japanese Satsuma. After creating this hybrid, the grower struggled to get his new fruit to maturity. Through much perseverance, he developed a particular method for growing and pruning his trees, different from any other citrus tree.

After 30 years of development and perfection, this treasure rose to be the most prized citrus in both Japan and Korea. The Dekopon, as it is called in Japan, was sold in specialty shops and became part of the Japanese tradition of offering only the best fruit as a gift.

Grown in California’s central valley with the exact same rigorous standards of the original Kumamoto farmer, its sweetness is unparalleled to any other citrus I have tried. The peel is bright orange, bumpy and loose, leaving no need to wrestle with such an easy peel. Unlike a clementine, the Sumo offers way more than two or three bites.

Sumo citrus is available for a limited time around February each year. Look for it in our produce department.

[henridelaposte]

The history paintings created by Aaron Williams for the "Magic Object" exhibition were inspired by Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 cult classic film The Shining.

Williams’ works, specifically titled "History Painting (Red)" and "History Painting (White)" (also cataloged as "History Painting I" and "History Painting II"), feature carved Formica panels that appear to be generic geometric abstractions,. However, these patterns are actually based on designs found within the film. The artist utilizes these specific visual references to explore and contrast images of Native American culture and European imperial power.

To help visualize this, the geometric patterns function like a coded language; while they look like simple decorative designs to an unaware viewer, they actually carry the heavy historical and thematic weight of the film's setting and its underlying cultural critiques.

Discover, explore, and learn about our digital archive through our Google Notebook LM

View the digital archive here

[henridelaposte]

Discover, explore, and learn about our digital archive through our Google Notebook LM

View the digital archive here

Artist Profile: Colin Lyons

Colin Lyons' practice serves as the conceptual anchor for the exhibition's theme of the artist-archaeologist. In his body of work "A Modern Cult of Monuments," Lyons focuses explicitly on industrial ruins, corrosion, and planned obsolescence. His process is a form of forensic chemistry; he treats various artifacts with acids and other chemicals, accelerating their decay to create prints and sculptures that are "artificially corroded and hardly recognizable." This act of forced ruin transforms everyday objects into mysterious relics that seem to have been unearthed from a lost civilization, imbuing them with the magical quality of the unknown and embodying a direct engagement with the archaeological impulse.

Artist Profile: Mary Kate Maher

Mary Kate Maher’s work materializes concepts of memory, place, and their eventual loss through a sophisticated use of material. Her freestanding sculpture "Spire" (2015), constructed from concrete polymers, acrylic, and plaster, immediately calls to mind ancient forms like totems and cairns, and is specifically inspired by traditional Inuit carvings. This connection to enduring traditions is starkly juxtaposed with her "White Out" (2015), a c-print on aluminum. Described as a stark contrast to "Spire," this piece represents "nothingness and the erasure of landscape." Together, these works create a powerful statement on the fragility of place and the ever-present threat of collective forgetting.

Artist Profile: Aaron Williams

Aaron Williams deconstructs the complex layers of cultural history embedded in popular media. His "History Painting" series (2015) utilizes a modern fabrication method—CNC routered laminate on plywood panel—to reproduce geometric patterns from Stanley Kubrick’s film "The Shining." This act is a form of digital archaeology, excavating a visual code from a cinematic artifact. The power of the work lies in the juxtaposition of histories the film itself contains, specifically the "contrasting images of Native American culture and European imperial powers." Williams’ paintings become contemporary relics that hold these conflicting narratives in a tense, abstract balance, their precise, technological surfaces belying the turbulent histories within.

Artist Profile: Rico Gatson

Rico Gatson’s "Panel Painting #1" (2015) functions as a vibrant, modern relic that bridges historical and contemporary aesthetics. Composed of acrylic paint, spray paint, and glitter on a wood panel, the work’s "bold color and geometric design" directly alludes to sacred historical objects, specifically "traditional African plank masks or Massai warrior shields." By translating the formal and spiritual power of these artifacts into the language of contemporary abstraction—using synthetic, scintillating materials—Gatson creates a "Magic Object" that resonates with ancestral memory while being firmly of the present.

Artist Profile: Alex Lee Harris

Alex Lee Harris's "CAGED Ringtone" (2015) is a technological artifact that explores the nature of sensory memory. Assembled from aluminum, brass, wire, nylon, MDF, paint, and electronics, it is an "instrument inspired by the sounds and anatomy of a wind chime." Suspended from the ceiling, the piece provides a "mysterious and haunting soundtrack," deconstructing the gentle, nostalgic sound of a chime into an uncanny and evocative electronic experience. It is a relic of our technological moment, capturing the way modern tools can both summon and alienate our perception of the past.

Artist Profile: Roxanne Jackson

Roxanne Jackson’s sculptures are psychological artifacts—relics of the inner world. Her practice uses the seemingly benign "image of a domestic cat" as a vehicle to "explore the internal duality of beauty and beastly as defined in Jungian psychology." In "Snake Eyes" (2014), she uses ceramic, glaze, and decoupage, while the lustrous finish of "Chrome Cats" (2013) comes from slip cast porcelain and a metallic vapor deposit. These material choices transform domestic figures into otherworldly totems. Her work represents a unique form of archaeology—an archaeology of the psyche—unearthing the primal tensions that exist within us all and giving them potent, fetishistic form.

Archaeologies of the Present: Materiality, History, and Futurity in 'Magic Object' and 'A Modern Cult of Monuments'

In 2015, two seemingly disparate exhibitions offered profound meditations on art's relationship with time, history, and the physical object. At 99 Cent Plus Gallery in Brooklyn, Magic Object assembled a group of artists under a shared thematic umbrella, while at CIRCA Art Actuel in Montréal, A Modern Cult of Monuments presented a focused solo exploration by artist Colin Lyons. This essay will argue that while both exhibitions engage deeply with history and materiality, they present contrasting curatorial and artistic strategies for navigating our complex relationship with the past. Magic Objectmines a deep, often mystical history to forge resonant contemporary artifacts imbued with a timeless power. In contrast, A Modern Cult of Monuments adopts a speculative, archaeological lens, turning its gaze to the ruins of the recent industrial past to critique our present and question the legacy we will leave for the future.

2. Curatorial Frameworks: The Collective versus the Singular Vision

The curatorial framework of an exhibition is its intellectual architecture, a structure that guides the viewer’s journey and shapes the interpretation of the works within. The contrast between the frameworks of Magic Object and A Modern Cult of Monuments reveals a fundamental divergence in how artistic arguments can be constructed, one favoring polyphony and the other a singular, forensic thesis.

Magic Object, curated by artist Rico Gatson, was conceived as a thematic group exhibition united by a "magical and evocative sensibility." This framework proves uniquely suited to its theme, as the notion of the "magical" is best explored not through a single definition but through a séance of resonant forms. Gatson’s approach allows for a polyphonic exploration where diverse mythologies—Jungian, Inuit, African—amplify one another. By bringing together artists whose works are "rooted in specific historical reference," the exhibition becomes an alchemical collection of contemporary talismans, generating meaning through the intuitive dialogue between otherwise disconnected works.

Conversely, A Modern Cult of Monuments was structured as a singular, focused artistic investigation by Colin Lyons. The exhibition’s conceptual framework, articulated with precision by essayist Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, frames Lyons as an "archaeologist of the future." This focused, thesis-driven approach is essential for the forensic nature of Lyons’s critique. To methodically build a case against industrial decay and planned obsolescence requires a singular vision, where every piece contributes directly to a central, unwavering argument. This structure provides a powerful, unified theoretical lens that transforms the gallery into a laboratory for cultural examination. These distinct curatorial strategies fundamentally inform how each exhibition engages with its historical source material.

3. Engaging with the Past: Mystical Histories vs. Industrial Ruins

The act of referencing history is a foundational gesture in contemporary art, a way of situating new work within a lineage of cultural memory. The divergent ways in which Magic Object and A Modern Cult of Monuments source and reinterpret the past reveal their fundamentally different philosophical stances on what history is for.

The Evocative Past in 'Magic Object'

The artists in Magic Object draw upon a vast and evocative repository of cultural, psychological, and art-historical sources, treating the past not as a closed chapter but as a mystical, timeless wellspring. They tap into deep currents of human experience, creating a dialogue between the ancient and the immediate. Curator Rico Gatson’s own Panel Painting #1 alludes to the formal power of "traditional African plank masks or Massai warrior shields," while Mary Kate Maher’s freestanding sculpture Spire finds its inspiration in "traditional Inuit carved forms that delineates edges of their native coastline," evoking the universal archetypes of totems and cairns. Other artists delve into the psychological schisms of more recent cultural memory. Aaron Williams’s History Painting series mines Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining to expose the violent friction between "Native American culture and European imperial powers," while Roxanne Jackson’s surreal ceramic sculptures explore the "internal duality of beauty and beastly as defined in Jungian psychology." Collectively, these works channel psychic energy and formal inspiration from the past to create "magical" contemporary objects that feel both new and primordial.

The Forensic Past in 'A Modern Cult of Monuments'

In stark contrast, Colin Lyons focuses his attention on the recent, industrial past, treating it not as a source of magic but as a site for forensic investigation. His practice is a direct response to the challenge laid down by artist Willie Cole, whose quote opens the exhibition catalogue: "Let's imagine that everything was destroyed and a new race or a new group of beings came to our planet and they tried to discover our culture through the things that we left... and nobody will ever know the truth." Lyons takes up this mantle, positioning himself as that future archaeologist. His subject is the industrial ruin, exemplified by his exploration of the "Six-Mile Mill, a forgotten site located ten kilometres from Kamloops." His process involves treating "artefacts chemically" to create "rusted and engraved imprints"—ghostly traces of what once was. Through this lens, Lyons approaches the past as evidence in a critical inquiry into decay and, crucially, "planned obsolescence." This engagement is not about channeling ancient power but about documenting present-day decay for a hypothetical future observer. These distinct approaches to history are directly mirrored in the artists' choices of physical materials.

4. Materiality and Meaning: The Enduring versus the Decaying Object

An artist’s choice of materials is never neutral; it is a conceptual decision that imbues a work with meaning, weight, and a specific relationship to time. In these two exhibitions, materiality serves to reinforce their core thematic concerns, creating a clear division between the desire for permanence and the embrace of decay.

Material Permanence in 'Magic Object'

The artists in Magic Object largely select materials that suggest endurance, creating solid artifacts that embody their rich historical and psychological references. Roxanne Jackson employs traditional mediums like "porcelain" and "ceramic," giving them a contemporary, almost alchemical sheen with "PVD (Metallic vapor deposit)" that makes them feel both ancient and futuristic. Mary Kate Maher’s monumental Spire is constructed from "concrete, concrete polymers, acrylic, plaster"—materials of architecture and permanence, a solidity pointedly contrasted with her photographic work White Out, which depicts a landscape through "erasure." Similarly, Aaron Williams embeds his historical narratives into a "CNC routered laminate on plywood panel," using a modern, manufactured surface to give his patterns a crisp, lasting form. These works become contemporary talismans intended to carry their "magical" charge forward in time. Yet, this narrative of permanence is brilliantly complicated by Alex Lee Harris's "CAGED Ringtone." Described as an instrument providing a "mysterious and haunting soundtrack for the exhibition," its materiality is ephemeral—sound, electronics, vibration. Harris’s work introduces the immaterial into an exhibition of objects, posing a critical question: can a "magic object" be a fleeting soundscape, an incantation as potent as any physical artifact?

Material Impermanence in 'A Modern Cult of Monuments'

For Colin Lyons, material and process are intertwined in a rigorous exploration of transience. His work often exists as a trace or a ruin where the process of decay is the artwork. Lyons uses "acid" and "corrosion" not merely as techniques but as conceptual tools, creating ghostly imprints rather than solid objects. This ethos is perfectly encapsulated in Research into Industrial Remai Six Miles North of Kamloops. The piece is a "three-metre long brochure printed with ferro-tannic ink," a material explicitly chosen because it "ensures its rapid destruction." Here, the artwork’s own decay is not just its subject but its central performance. The brochure is a conceptual act, a monument to impermanence that actively performs its own disappearance. This is a potent critique of "planned obsolescence," where the object becomes a self-effacing witness to the ephemeral logic of our industrial age.

5. Conclusion: Divergent Archaeologies for the Future

Held in the same year, Magic Object and A Modern Cult of Monuments serve as powerful, parallel inquiries into art's role as a mediator of time. Ultimately, they represent two divergent forms of contemporary archaeology. Magic Objectpresents an alchemical collection of contemporary talismans, objects that draw their power from the deep, mythic strata of human history to speak to the present. In contrast, A Modern Cult of Monuments functions as a speculative archive, a forensic catalog of our own industrial present for a hypothetical future.

The broader implications of these two positions are significant. Magic Object proposes a future where art continues its ancient function as a conduit for timeless mythologies and psychological archetypes, creating objects of enduring power that transcend their immediate context. In this vision, art is a bulwark against the ephemeral.

A Modern Cult of Monuments, on the other hand, suggests a more critical and self-aware role for art. It proposes that in an age of mass production and environmental decay, art’s primary function is to document the present’s legacy of waste and impermanence. By directly answering Willie Cole’s call, Lyons’s practice fulfills the role of the "archaeologist of the future," sifting through our ruins to understand who we were. Together, these exhibitions offer distinct and valuable models for how contemporary art can mediate humanity’s complex relationship with its past, its material culture, and the monuments—magical or decaying—it will ultimately leave behind.

Unlocking the Big Ideas: A Guide to Art Exhibition Themes

Introduction: More Than Meets the Eye

Welcome! When you walk into an art gallery, you see paintings, sculptures, and installations. But behind each of these works, there are often powerful "big ideas" or themes that connect them. Exhibitions are rarely just a random collection of objects; they are carefully curated stories waiting to be discovered.

This guide is designed to demystify two of these powerful themes—'Magic Object' and 'Planned Obsolescence'—using clear explanations and examples from actual artworks. Think of yourself as a detective. Your mission is to look beyond the surface and uncover the deeper meaning woven into the art you see.

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1. Theme 1: The Magic Object - When Art Holds Hidden Power

Some artworks just feel different. They seem to hold a certain weight or energy that goes beyond the materials they are made from. These are what we might call "Magic Objects." They feel magical not because of spells or illusions, but because artists have loaded them with hidden meanings and powerful connections to history, culture, and our own minds.

1.1. Defining the 'Magic Object'

What makes an object 'magical' in art?

The exhibition "Magic Object" describes these works as possessing a "magical and evocative sensibility." This power comes from the fact that the art is rooted in "specific historical reference" and draws from a "variety of subjects."

For our purposes, the 'magic' isn't literal. It refers to an artist's ability to transform an object by connecting it to powerful, invisible ideas. By linking a painting to an ancient shield or a sculpture to a psychological concept, the artist makes the viewer feel or think something entirely new, turning a simple object into something resonant and profound.

1.2. Case Study: Weaving History and Culture into Art

One way artists create this 'magic' is by drawing inspiration from deep cultural history, embedding ancient power into modern forms.

Artwork & Artist

The Hidden Connection & Its Effect

Rico Gatson, "Panel Painting #1"

Casually leaning against the gallery wall, this modern, abstract painting has a bold design that intentionally alludes to "traditional African plank masks or Massai warrior shields." This connection infuses a contemporary piece with the historical power and cultural presence of these ancient, functional objects.

Mary Kate Maher, "Spire"

This tall, freestanding sculpture is inspired by "traditional Inuit carved forms" and is designed to resemble "totems, hag stones and cairns." By referencing these ancient markers, Maher makes her sculpture feel like a mysterious, time-worn landmark that has been discovered and placed inside the gallery.

1.3. Case Study: Tapping into Pop Culture and Psychology

Another source of 'magic' comes from ideas that we all share, whether from the study of the mind or from iconic movies that have shaped our culture.

Art of the Mind: Roxanne Jackson's sculptures "Snake Eyes" and "Chrome Cats" take a familiar household animal—the domestic cat—and reveal its hidden nature. She uses its form to explore the "internal duality of beauty and beastly" as defined in Jungian psychology, tapping into a shared psychological concept to make us see a common creature in a new, unsettling light.

Art of the Movies: Aaron Williams's paintings "History Painting (Red)" and "History Painting (White)" feature repeating geometric patterns. These designs aren't random; they are based on patterns from Stanley Kubrick's 1980 cult classic film "The Shining." This reference immediately fills the abstract patterns with the eerie, unsettling feeling of the film and its deeper themes of "contrasting images of Native American culture and European imperial powers."

By connecting their creations to vast histories and shared psychological feelings, these artists transform simple objects into 'Magic Objects' that carry deep meaning. Next, we'll explore a theme that looks at what happens when an object's intended meaning and purpose come to an end.

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2. Theme 2: Planned Obsolescence - The Art of Forgetting and Remembering

While our first theme was about artists adding layers of meaning to objects, this theme, "Planned Obsolescence," is about questioning why and how objects lose their meaning and value in our modern world. It is an exploration of the beauty and history found in the things we are designed to forget.

2.1. Defining 'Planned Obsolescence'

What is 'Planned Obsolescence' in art?

In business, the term has a very specific meaning.

"a business strategy designed to reduce the service life of a product in order to increase faster replacement frequency."

So, what does this have to do with art? Artist Colin Lyons expands this idea beyond just gadgets that are built to break. For him, the concept also applies to the "loss of individual and collective memory" and even to "ways of doing, thinking, and communicating" that our society chooses to discard and replace. His art asks us to look at what we throw away and why.

2.2. The Artist as an Archaeologist

In his exhibition, titled "A Modern Cult of Monuments," artist Colin Lyons reframes industrial waste as something worthy of memorializing. He acts as an "artist-archaeologist" and "detective," creating a new kind of monument from the forgotten relics of our recent past.

His process involves several steps:

Exploring Ruins: He visits forgotten industrial sites, like the Six-Mile Mill in British Columbia, to find artifacts and fragments.

Transforming Objects: He treats these found objects with chemicals. He doesn't just clean them; he uses chemistry to alter them, sometimes to "highlight the marks of corrosion" and other times to preserve them from further decay.

Asking Big Questions: By presenting these corroded and transformed objects, he forces us to become investigators, too. He invites us to wonder about their past, asking questions like "Where do these objects come from? What were they used for?" This process makes us think critically about the cycles of production and waste in our society.

2.3. Bringing the Idea to Life: The 'Time Machine'

A key artwork that demonstrates this theme is Colin Lyons's "Time Machine." This piece is not a machine for travel, but one that directly confronts our ideas about how objects age, hold value, and decay.

The artist developed it to "alter objects by both preserving them from corrosion and damaging them with corrosion, seemingly graphically to deceive time and the cycles of use that has been assigned them."

Lyons's "trick" on time is profound. By presenting objects in a state of simultaneous preservation and destruction, he disrupts our linear understanding of an object’s life: creation, use, decay, and disposal. He forces us to confront artifacts that exist outside this timeline, making us question the very system of planned obsolescence that dictates it. What is valuable and what is disposable? What is history and what is trash?

Through his artistic archaeology, Colin Lyons finds beauty and meaning in industrial ruins, prompting us to reconsider our disposable culture. This connects back to our first theme by showing that even forgotten objects can be given a new, powerful life.

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3. Conclusion: Connecting the Ideas

Though they seem different, "Magic Object" and "Planned Obsolescence" are both about how artists intervene in the life cycle of an object to control its meaning.

Artists in "Magic Object" intervene at the very beginning of an object's life. They intentionally embed historical and psychological DNA into new forms, granting them immediate power and resonance from the moment of their creation.

In contrast, an artist like Colin Lyons intervenes at the very end of an object's intended life. He rescues industrial fragments from oblivion and, by treating them as artifacts for his "modern cult of monuments," gives them a second, sacred life beyond their obsolete purpose.

The next time you visit a gallery, look for these artistic interventions. Ask yourself: Is the artist embedding meaning into something new, or are they salvaging meaning from something old? By looking for these "big ideas," you can unlock a richer, more profound experience with art.

A Closer Look: Profiles of Contemporary Artists

Welcome to an exploration of the unique creative visions of several contemporary artists featured in two distinct exhibitions. For anyone new to the art world, this guide is designed to help you understand and appreciate what makes each artist's work so unique and compelling. By looking closely at their ideas, materials, and inspirations, we can gain a deeper insight into the stories they tell.

1. The "Magic Object" Exhibition

"Magic Object," curated by Rico Gatson at the 99 Cent Gallery, brings together five artists whose work shares a "magical and evocative sensibility." The art in this exhibition is rooted in a wide variety of sources, drawing from historical references, Jungian psychology, traditional Inuit carving, and even classic films to create a powerful and thought-provoking experience.

1.1 Rico Gatson

Rico Gatson's work connects bold, modern geometric designs with powerful cultural symbols from the past. His piece, "Panel Painting #1," which casually leans against the gallery wall, alludes to the forms of traditional African plank masks and Massai warrior shields. He uses a striking combination of bold color and geometric patterns to evoke these historical objects. The work is created with acrylic paint, spray paint, and glitter on a wood panel.

1.2 Alex Lee Harris

Alex Lee Harris is an artist who creates sound sculptures that transform the atmosphere of the gallery space. His work "CAGED Ringtone" is an instrument inspired by the sound and physical anatomy of a wind chime. Suspended from the ceiling, its purpose in the exhibition is to provide a "mysterious and haunting soundtrack" that envelops the viewer. The sculpture is constructed from a diverse range of materials:

Aluminum

Brass

Wire

Nylon

MDF

Paint

Electronics

1.3 Roxanne Jackson

Roxanne Jackson uses the familiar image of the domestic cat to explore complex and sometimes unsettling psychological ideas. Her porcelain sculptures delve into the concept of the "internal duality of beauty and beastly," an idea defined in Jungian psychology.

"Snake Eyes" (2014): Ceramic, glaze, decoupage.

"Chrome Cats" (2013): Slip cast porcelain, glaze, PVD (Metallic vapor deposit).

1.4 Mary Kate Maher

Mary Kate Maher is an artist whose work is deeply inspired by natural landscapes and ancient, human-made forms. Her two featured pieces offer a study in contrasts, exploring both physical presence and its absence.

Work

Core Idea & Inspiration

Materials

"Spire" (2015)

A freestanding sculpture that resembles totems, hag stones, and cairns (human-made stacks of stones). It is inspired by traditional Inuit carved forms that delineate the edges of their native coastline.

Concrete, concrete polymers, acrylic, plaster

"White Out" (2015)

A photographic work that provides a stark contrast to "Spire." It explores the "representation of nothingness and the erasure of landscape."

C-print on aluminum

1.5 Aaron Williams

Aaron Williams uses seemingly simple geometric patterns to make a powerful statement about history and cultural conflict. His contributions to the exhibition, "History Painting (Red)" and "History Painting (White)," feature patterns taken from designs in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film "The Shining." The crucial insight is that these designs are used in the film to create a contrast between Native American culture and European imperial powers. Williams uses this reference to explore that historical tension in his own work. The pieces are created using CNC routered laminate on plywood panels.

While the artists in "Magic Object" draw from film, history, and psychology, our next artist finds his inspiration in the forgotten industrial objects all around us.

2. Colin Lyons: "A Modern Cult of Monuments"

This solo exhibition features the work of Colin Lyons, an artist who acts as an "archaeologist of the future." He examines the things our society creates and discards, asking what they will say about us to future generations. The central theme of Lyons' work is exploring planned obsolescence—the idea that things are designed to break or go out of style—and what it reveals about our society. His interest in industrial ruins was fueled by growing up in Petrolia, Ontario, known as 'Canada's original oil boomtown'.

Lyons uses a unique method that blends history, chemistry, and art. Here are the basic steps of his artistic process:

The "Artist-Archaeologist": He begins by exploring post-industrial ruins, such as the Six-Mile Mill, a forgotten site located ten kilometres from Kamloops, British Columbia. This allows him to understand the history of a place through its discarded objects.

Chemical Transformation: He then uses a process that fuses printmaking, sculpture, and chemical experiments. He soaks metal objects in acid and then engraves them to highlight the marks of corrosion, transforming them into artifacts that look ancient and unrecognizable. This process makes us question what we choose to preserve and what we allow to decay.

Exploring Future Ruins: Ultimately, his work asks us to consider the life cycle of everyday objects. What will our modern ruins—our outdated phones, cars, and appliances—say about us in the future? His in-depth exploration of the Six-Mile Mill site resulted in a video titled "New Monuments/Old Foundations."

3. Conclusion

While the subjects of these artists range from psychological symbols in porcelain cats to the rusted ruins of industry, they all share a fascinating approach. They look deeply into the past—whether it's cultural history, cinematic references, or the life cycle of a forgotten object—to create art that challenges us to see our own world in a new and more insightful light.

5 Surprising Ideas from the Art World That Will Change How You See Everything

Introduction: Beyond the White Cube

Contemporary art can sometimes seem impenetrable, a world of abstract concepts and stark white galleries that feels disconnected from our daily lives. We look at a piece and wonder, “What am I supposed to be seeing here?” But beneath the surface, artists are often wrestling with fascinating ideas that connect directly to our culture, our psychology, and the very objects we use every day. They are thinkers and provocateurs, using their work to ask questions we might not have thought to ask.

This article pulls back the curtain on that process. By exploring works from two recent exhibitions, Colin Lyons’s “A Modern Cult of Monuments” and the group show “Magic Object,” we've distilled five powerful and surprising takeaways. These artists act as cultural archaeologists—some by creating artifacts for the future, others by digging into the hidden layers of our present, excavating meaning from horror films and house cats. Their ideas challenge our perceptions of time and culture, proving that a trip to a gallery can do more than just give you something to look at—it can change how you see everything.

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1. Art Can Travel to the Future by Becoming a Ruin Today

We usually think of art and preservation as going hand-in-hand. An artist creates something, and the goal is to keep it pristine for future generations. In his exhibition “A Modern Cult of Monuments,” artist Colin Lyons turns this idea on its head. Instead of preserving modern artifacts, he intentionally accelerates their decay. Using chemical treatments like acid, he artificially corrodes and ages objects, making them appear as ancient relics that a future archaeologist might unearth.

Herein lies the surprise: Lyons doesn't fight decay; he wields it. For him, corrosion is a form of communication, a way to send a message about our disposable culture and the concept of planned obsolescence. To frame this idea, the exhibition’s essayist, Geneviève Goyer-Ouimette, invokes the words of artist Willie Cole:

Let's imagine that everything was destroyed and a new race or a new group of beings came to our planet and they tried to discover our culture through the things that we left, and they find my works of art. So I have totally changed everything and nobody will ever know the truth.

Consider the smartphone in your pocket. Lyons's work forces us to see it not as a tool for today, but as a mysterious fossil for tomorrow. What story will it tell?

2. Your Pet Cat Holds a Secret Psychological Duality

At first glance, a sculpture of a cat seems familiar, almost comforting. But in the exhibition “Magic Object,” artist Roxanne Jackson uses this common image to explore something far more complex. Her sculptures, “Snake Eyes,” a tense form of glazed ceramic and decoupage, and the shimmering “Chrome Cats,” made from slip-cast porcelain and metallic vapor, present the domestic cat as a vessel for a deep psychological concept.

The surprising depth here is that these works explore “the internal duality of beauty and beastly as defined in Jungian psychology”—the idea, from the influential psychologist Carl Jung, that our conscious self is always in tension with a wilder, more primal “shadow self.” Jackson takes an animal we associate with simple domesticity and elevates it into a powerful symbol of the conflicting forces within us all. This reframes the familiar. It suggests that the tension between our civilized selves and our wilder instincts isn't just human—it's a fundamental pattern, visible even in the animals we live with.

3. A Horror Movie Can Be a Canvas for Historical Critique

Aaron Williams’s works “History Painting I” and “History Painting II” present as sleek, almost minimalist panels, their surfaces carved with hypnotic, interlocking geometric patterns that feel both modern and ancient. But the source of these intricate designs, produced by a CNC router on laminate and plywood, is entirely unexpected: Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 horror film, “The Shining.”

The real twist, however, isn't just the pop culture reference. The work uses the film's aesthetic as a launchpad for a much deeper commentary, creating a contrast between “images of Native American culture and European imperial powers.” By linking the iconic patterns of the Overlook Hotel—a place famously built over a burial ground—to this historical tension, Williams transforms a piece of horror cinema into a sharp critique of colonialism. This is where art does its most powerful work: layering meaning until a pop-culture artifact becomes a vessel for confronting uncomfortable historical truths.

4. The Gallery's Soundtrack Can Be a Work of Art

When you walk into an art gallery, you expect to use your eyes. The experience is primarily visual. However, Alex Lee Harris’s piece “CAGED Ringtone” challenges that assumption by making sound the main event. Described as an instrument inspired by the sound and anatomy of a wind chime, the piece was suspended from the ceiling during the “Magic Object” exhibition.

Its surprising function was to provide a “mysterious and haunting soundtrack for the exhibition.” This wasn't just background music; it was a central artwork designed to shape the visitor's entire emotional and sensory experience of the space. Harris’s work demonstrates that a gallery is not just a place for silent contemplation of static objects. Sound itself can be the sculpture, creating an immersive environment that redefines the boundaries of a visual art exhibition.

5. Art Can Be an Act of Erasure

What is a picture of? Usually, it's a picture of something—a person, a place, an object. Artist Mary Kate Maher’s work offers a startlingly different answer. At first glance, her piece “White Out” (2015) appears to be a stark abstract: two floating white shapes against a void of absolute black, presented as a c-print on aluminum. Its true purpose, however, is to serve as a “representation of nothingness and the erasure of landscape.”

This idea is profoundly counter-intuitive. We think of art as an act of creation, of adding something to the world. But Maher’s work explores the power of absence. This becomes even clearer when seen alongside her other piece in the show, “Spire,” a tall, totem-like sculpture that “delineates edges of their native coastline.” One work erases the landscape, while the other defines it. Together, they reveal an artist engaged in a complex dialogue about place, presence, and removal. It asks us to consider the power of what we don't see. What is made more powerful in your own life by its absence?

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Conclusion: What Are You Overlooking?

As these five takeaways show, artists are cultural archaeologists, constantly finding new ways to make us reconsider the world around us. Some, like Lyons, create future artifacts to question our present. Others, like Williams and Jackson, dig into our shared culture to reveal the hidden historical and psychological layers beneath a horror film or a house cat. They prove that art isn't just about making things, but about revealing the invisible forces that shape our reality—from the sound in a room to the power of a blank space.

The next time you encounter a seemingly simple object or idea, what hidden story might you be missing?

[lundsandbyerlys]

Give the gift of produce

Colin Lyons, our produce buyer, shares this Lunds and Byerly’s holiday tradition:

The holiday season for a produce buyer can be the most exciting time of the year. The pomegranates are bright red; clementines are sweet and juicy; pears are soft and succulent. I am not only amazed by the varieties and flavors available during the holidays, but the sheer volume that we all consume is dizzying. Any why shouldn’t we? In a holiday season full of high fat, salt and sugar, filling up on healthy fruits and vegetables is something that we should strive for.

This season is a time for reflection, thanks and celebration. We are so lucky to have such a bounty of produce from the growing things in our world, and I am so lucky to be able to share that bounty with all of my Minnesota neighbors.

The theme of giving food as a gift is the strongest in the produce department. Fruit baskets have been a Lunds and Byerly’s holiday tradition since long before my time.

As a kid I remember seeing these impressive bundles of fruit as we shopped at Byerly’s St. Louis Park. Massive artistic displays of fruit held by sturdy, hand woven baskets and sealed with a crystal clear cellophane wrap made the fruit that much more beautiful.

Years later, and working in the produce department at Byerly’s, I can appreciate the baskets I loved as a kid.

Learning to build them was a challenge, but the smile on my customers face when I presented them with my finished work was magical. It was my favorite part of working in the store and something I will never forget.

This tradition is still very alive at our stores. We continue to offer a multitude of different baskets full of our finest produce. With everything from apples and pears to grapes and pineapple, I am confident you will find your perfect gift of produce.

To order a fruit basket ahead of time, call the store of your choice. Need a basket now? We will have ready-made baskets available in all stores through December 24!

Happy holidays!

[curatorialcollective]

Automatic Ruins at SPACES

Automatic Ruins at SPACES

Come to SPACES on the evening of November 14, 2014 for your fix of generative art, repurposed rubble, and invasive GIFs. New exhibitions include Process by CEC ArtsLink fellow & SWAP resident, Irina Spicaka (Riga, Latvia); R&D project, Automatic Ruins, by Colin Lyons (Kamloops, BC, Canada); and The Invasion Has Begun, a collection of GIFs that you can add to in The Vault.

At 9pm, Cleveland’s…

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