Love in Palimpsests: Portrait of 1983-2014, Chapter, Image Dead, Art Lives in Life

Page updated 14 June 2014.

This work I made in 2012, and is an extract of the third book in the series Portrait of 1983-2014. It is a work that creates a moving portrait across images, narrative, time and place. It is a palimpsest, continuously being added to and partially erased as a way of seeing that time and person changes. This work is influenced by Cotzee’s book Summertime. After the artist is gone, I hope this series will be added to by others. A memory of a moving portrait I believe can be continuously added to and changed as long as humanity exists. I want how we perceive portraiture in art to be free and have ability to change the perception of the viewer, like people do in life.

I want how we perceive portraiture in art to be free and have ability to change the perception of the viewer as you encounter more and potential endless interpretations of an living individual. People move, change and are free in life. I want to echo this potential of humanity in painting.

Please find out more about them from the press release I published below in 2012.

‘Lyons’s work combines a strong sense of book-history with her individual talent for telling human stories through striking images’ – Dr Francis Leneghan, Lecturer in Medieval Literature, University of Oxford
Lyons’s exhibition, Love in Palimpsests, creates connections between works separated by time and medium – paintings, books, and frames – to present a shimmering, open-ended exploration narrative of the threshold between the self and the other. In this exhibition, visual documents portraying both past and present evoke more than can say out loud.
‘Life, memory, history and art are by their nature selective, and with this comes a creative process. When we remember, we create anew as much as we memorialise. I want to explore in painting a mirror of these processes and their consequences.’ – Josephine Lyons
In the first show exhibiting her unusual craft, Lyons applies a renewed understanding of the ‘palimpsest’, an object or image that reveals different histories through the rewriting and partial erasing of a narrative, particularly used during times of social upheaval.
Lyons presents a portrait across different moments that continue to evolve past this exhibition. Consisting of six books built up over years of creation, this exhibition links fifty paintings and two sculptures that reflect a multitude of experiences in art and life.
Book one explores notions of personal memories; book two, the creative process in art, the shared social contexts and the memory of art. This book reflects Lyons belief that the way we remember art and history changes our perceptions of today and enriches today’s imagination for tomorrow.
Lyons’s third book Always Already examines the building of a narrative in contrast to the stillness and transience of a single image. The fourth book considers memories of love, titled Love found in art is unconditional and is inspired by the idea of Cupid’s 12 arrows: 6 signifying the sins of love and 6 the joys of love. Lyons’s fifth book examines memories of a portrait through the lens of remembering landscapes.
The sixth book is about sharing ideas of how to make art and asks the question ‘what stories do you see in these works?’ Through this conceptually collaborative work, Josephine literally presents how ‘the world is our palette, we share art’’.
The final book on display in the exhibition will be made from contributions by the public, other artists and Lyons, and asks what new memories are stirred by the artworks. This collaborative book brings the exhibition to full circle, joining new memories with old, and emphasising how memory is in constant transition.
Lyons’ subjects of choice: memories, inheritance and imagination are explored through collaged photographs, text and paintings. These highly personal works reflect how Lyons sees painting as giving a personal way of seeing, remembering and recalling the world, a relevant topic as imagery and recorded memory increasingly become virtual.