Lyndi Sales — Surveillance passive — Maria Lund Gallery — Exhibition — Slash Paris

Past: October 21 → December 3, 2011

“I think all artwork is trying to ‘bring people to their senses’”. […] So much of our lives is spent in the world of the past or the future, and I find inhabiting the present to be curiously difficult, but somehow regenerative, transformative and rewarding. Though we are always in it, the present is a very mysterious and elusive and mutable idea."

Lyndi Sales

Central to Lyndi Sales’s recent work is the “real-imaginary”. Possibly utopian, this project nevertheless carries the conviction that by seeking to surpass the limits of perception, new paths become accessible. Her work lies closer to a more complete, more whole vision where everything is connected, whereas we often only experience fragments of reality. The artist uses models and structures taken from nature — inspiration comes from the infinitely small as well as the immensity of space, order and chaos of the microcosm are echoed in the macrocosm. For the past few years, astronomy imagery or scientific geometric systems have become the starting point for her works. She brings together different points of view, distorted complex structures create real visual tensions. In a recent interview during her participation in the Venice Biennale 2011, Lyndi Sales discusses the notion of “looking with your eyes closed”. This refers to ignoring what can obstruct vision, exploiting all the possibilities of reaching “something more”, that distinguishes itself from the narrow functional and usual perception.

If our space, our real living place is ‘time’, Lyndi Sales seeks to slow time down, to suspend it in order to observe it close-up, to better understand it; her interest lies more specifically in the instants preceding a transformation, a transition — times of tension, of intersection. She searches for an intensified vision, in the same way as meditation, hypnosis, hallucinogenics or psychoanalysis.

Passive surveillance

Passive surveillance is the title of Lyndi Sales’ second solo show in France. The title refers to both the observer and the observed. It marks the difference between objective and subjective observation, a peaceful contemplation or an inactive surveillance. Sales’s new creations adhere to the existential and metaphysical interrogation that is central to all her work. Thus, the installation Onthology a monumental suspended filigree, suggests infinity. Medallions are interconnected with narrow stems, the whole thing is made out of newspaper cuttings with fragments of information appearing, as well as black and white zones. The form reflects an advanced study of scientific models and questioning. For the artist, this is a way of transcribing her personal concerns, more or less consciously, in the hope of finding echoes in others. Her work on vision began when she was diagnosed with an astigmatism, which led to a reflection on seeing, looking. The result of this reflection was a first body of works entitled “Double Vision” presented at CHIC dessin art fair in 2010. In an artwork, Lyndi Sales searches for the metaphor, the symbolic. If she uses established models, she doesn’t seek to reproduce them. On the contrary, she appropriates then modifies them often in a playful manner. By preserving, adding or enlarging she introduces chaos to the order, to stimulate reflection.

Running parallel to her solo show, her installation 159/295 will be presented in the projects section of Slick 11 art fair (20-23 October 2011). An emblematic piece, this magnificent Phoenix ready for take-off is composed of 159 paper kites. Borrowing from heraldic and religious iconography, suspended using red thread, the kites refer to the 159 people on board South African airlines flight number 295 which fell to the abyss of the Indian Ocean in 1987 and later became known as Helderberg. 159/295 alludes to the Chinese traditional ceremony of commemoration where kites are released into the sky to symbolize the thoughts of the living towards the dead. According to this tradition, the kites carry the grief, good predictions replace mourning.