Bio
Kay S Lawrence was awarded her PhD from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia, in 2014. She sees art in all its forms as a means of communication, with the ability to connect people and places and to lead to greater cultural understanding. Her interdisciplinary art practice critically engages with anthropological, physical and spiritual aspects of her surroundings, and interweaves image, metaphor and abstraction. Lawrence use textiles and digital imagery as discrete art objects and as components of installation practice. She is concerned with fractures and dislocations of time/space continuum and the fragile and ephemeral nature of both life and time. She is particularly interested in the interpretation of space and light in installation practice; how we experience spaces through the relationship of our bodies to architectural spaces and a concomitant inner, psychological experience of those spaces. As Bachelard proposed, she believes that space is not merely a container of objects, but where human perception resides and our memories inform the interpretation of space.
In her current studio research she is seeking a better understanding of how the haptic and visual qualities of textile materials and digital imagery contribute to understanding the complex relationship between time, space and the body within the context of installation practice.She believes that fibre functions symbolically and metaphorically for the fragility and ephemerality of life and time. Dislocations in the time/space continuum are suggested by fragments of digital imagery. This recontextualising brings new and shifting layers of content, perception and meaning to her art practice. She searches for the transformative elements among the ordinary and technologically sophisticated materials and techniques, which will provide the embodied experiences she creates.
Short CV
Personal details
Kay S Lawrence (b.1954 Australia), lives and works in Brisbane, AustraliaT: 0419647055
E: kaysheilalawrence@gmail.com Web: www.kaylawrence.net
Education
2014 Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Doctor of Philosophy
2009 Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Bachelor of Fine Art First Class Honours
2007 Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, Bachelor of Fine Art
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016-18 “Material Matters”, touring 8 Queensland regional galleries
2016 “Material Matters”, Logan Art Gallery, Queensland
2015 “EveryDay Matters”, Foyer Gallery, ANU, Canberra
2014 “Material Matters”, Webb Gallery, QCA, Brisbane
2013 “My Body is Mostly Water”, Tai Project, Kunming, China
2012 “Re/claimations”, Crane Arts Old School, Philadelphia, USA
2011 “Re/formations”, POP Gallery, Woolloongabba, Queensland
2010 “Microcystis”, Pickled Art Space, 798 Art District, Beijing, China
Selected Group Exhibitions and Collaborations
2018 RONA 18 National Exhibition, Spring Hill Reservoirs, Spring Hill, Brisbane
2018 “Odyssey: An Australian Photographer in China”, Changjiang Museum of Contemporary Art, Chongqing, China
2018 “Odyssey: An Australian Photographer in China”, Dali Old Town Museum, Yunnan, China
2017 “Art Meets Science”, Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland
2016 “Plenty”, Powerhouse, Brisbane
2016 “Art Meets Science”, Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland
2015 “Áfram með smjörið”, Listhús Gallery, Olafsfjordur, Iceland
2015 “The Environmental Scream”, Murwillumbah Art Trail, NSW
2014 “The GAS – Graduate Art Show”, Griffith University Art Gallery, Queensland
2014 “Shifting Ground”, HOLD Artspace South Brisbane, Queensland
2014 “Response to River”, The Shed, Hamilton, Queensland
2014 “Meet van Gogh”, Kunming, China
2014 “A Knife and a Torch”, HOLD Artspace, South Brisbane, Queensland
2013 “Down the Rabbit Hole”, QCA, Southbank & USQ, Toowoomba, Queensland
2013 8th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures, Vilnius Lithuania
2013 “The Philadelphia Connection”, POP@AFG, South Brisbane
2012 “Positive Feedback Loop”, Browning Street Studios, West End
2012 “The Necessary Transition”, Ship Inn, South Bank, Brisbane
2012 “Three Tonnes”, Aimoto, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
2012 “Ton Ton / Knock Knock”, (Tsukiyo to Syonen) Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2012 “The Word Conterminous”, Jugglers Art Space, Fortitude Valley
2011 “Teerk Roo Ra”, POP Gallery, Woolloongabba
2011 “Vanish/Survive”,7th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures, Vilnius
2009 “Hiromi Hotel”, Fresh Cut 2009, IMA, Brisbane, Queensland
Awards and Prizes
2013 “Greening the beige”, Eco-residency, Contemporary Yunnan, Kunming, China
2011-2014 Griffith University Postgraduate Research Scholarship
2008 Churchie national emerging art exhibition finalist
Artist Residencies
2016/17 RONA 16
2016 Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park, Queensland
2015 Listhus Art Space, Ólafsfjörður, Iceland
2015 ANU School of Art, Textiles Workshop, Canberra
2013 943 Contemporary Yunnan, Kunming, China
2012 SandAvinci School of Art & Design, Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan
2012 QCA Crane Arts, Philadelphia, USA
2010 Peel Island, Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia
2010 Red Gate Residency, Beijing, China
2008 Geidai University, Tokyo, Japan
Grants
2016 Arts Queensland, “Playing Queensland Fund” grant
2014 Arts Queensland, NAVA Future Forward conference bursary
Collections
Private collections, Japan, China, Singapore and Australia
Selected Bibliography
2016 “Dancing with Shadows”, Louise Martin-Chew, p. 1
2016 “Interwoven: Kay S Lawrence’s ‘Material Matters’”, Lisa Bryan-Brown, p.9
2015 “Material Matters”, Textile Fibre Forum, Issue No. 118, June 2015, p. 45
2014 “Soft Bodies”, Madeleine Stack, p.6
2013 “Refueling, a Better Life Awaits You”, November 2015, p. 54
2013 “Moving Over Water”, Kathryn Sawyer
2013 “Thoughts – that is… “, 8th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures,
2013 “Down the Rabbit Hole”, QCA, Griffith University, p. 46
2013 “The Philadelphia Connection”, QCA, Griffith University, pp. 18-21
2011 “Vanish/Survive”, 7th International Biennial of Textile Miniatures
2011 “Recognising Teerk Roo Ra: The Teerk Roo Ra Artists’ Residencies
2011”, Pat Hoffie, QCA, Griffith University, 2011, p.
2008 ‘The Mother Project’, Holly Arden, “Eyeline contemporary visual arts”,
Volume 66,p. 69.
Selected Texts
2015 “The Body as Drawing Instrument in Feminist Art Practice”, Drawing
International Brisbane 2015 Symposium Proceedings online
2014 Material Matters: Contemporary Women’s Work, PhD Thesis
2011 ‘Textiles: some visible and invisible connections in contemporary
visual art installation practice’, “Oculus Postgraduate Journal for Visual
Arts Research”, Issue No. 3, February 2011
Research Appointments/Conference Papers
2015-current Adjunct research fellow Griffith Centre for Creative Arts Research, GU
2015 Drawing International Brisbane, “The Body as Drawing Instrument in Feminist
Practice”
2013 Creativity and Innovation through Cross Fertilisation, GU, “The Body
Involved”
2012 Positive Feedback Loop: creative collaboration, GU, ‘‘Tenuous Couplings”
2012 QCA Postgrad conference, GU, “Tenuous Couplings: a critical discussion”
2011 Cultural Research Symposium, GU, “Entangled Limbs: Echoic Connections”
2010 “Textiles: some visible and invisible connections”, Oculus Visual Arts
Postgraduate conference, Christchurch, NZ