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Set to be one of the largest dedicated contemporary art precincts in Melbourne, a new public art gallery will open mid 2018 offering a new platform for works of contemporary art, architecture and design. Part of a major expansion of the Lyon Housemuseum and the result of a $14.5 million donation by the founding benefactors, the Lyon family, the gallery will provide a series of spaces for international and local exhibitions and events, where new ways of presenting and experiencing art will be explored.
Corbett Lyon commented, “We are very excited by plans for the new public gallery and its potential to foster experimentation, ideas and conversations across disciplines – between artists, architects, designers and the public to enrich and add to our city’s cultural life.” He continues, “… As we approach the opening of the new museum we are thinking widely in terms of ideas, exhibitions and events to add a rich dimension to the extraordinary cultural life we have here in Melbourne.”
As part of the announcement on Tuesday January 31, a major new artwork, the size of an Olympic-sized swimming pool at 44 x 20 metres, was revealed. Australian contemporary artist Reko Rennie’s VISIBLE INVISIBLE (2017) spreads across the concrete base of the building, forming the foundation of the new galleries. Using 600 litres of Dulux paint to create, the artwork will be visible in its entirety for a short time, prior to being covered by the construction of the new museum. The artwork is visible from the street (as well as passing tram) for the coming weeks. A portion of the artwork will remain visible within the new museum, hinting at the colossal artwork lying hidden beneath.
Reko Rennie explores his Aboriginal identity through contemporary media, provokes discussion surrounding Indigenous culture and identity in contemporary urban environments. Largely autobiographical, his commanding works combine the iconography of his Kamilaroi heritage with stylistic elements of graffiti. Merging traditional diamond-shaped designs, hand-drawn symbols and repetitive patterning, he works to subvert romantic ideologies of Aboriginal identity.
“Camouflage exploits the vulnerability of visual perception and its subjective relationship with meaning. It usually attempts to render the visible invisible by disorienting our eyes and employing the art of disguise. This work plays with layers of patterning, colour blending and contrasting areas of intensity and flatness in order to turn the tradition role of camouflage on its head. My use of camouflage aims to amplify, rather than conceal my identity, and to stake my claim to a luminous, commanding form of cultural visibility.”
Lyon Housemuseum
Melbourne
Images:
Street view, new Housemuseum galleries
Courtesy Lyon Housemuseum
View of central gallery
Courtesy Lyon Housemuseum
Foundational artwork marking commencement of construction of new Lyon Housemuseum galleries; Reko Rennie, VISIBLE INVISIBLE, 2017
Photograph: John Gollings
Courtesy Lyon Housemuseum
