In Old Lie New Ground, Steve Lyons explores the ways in which photographic documentation affects the legacy, authenticity and legitimacy of site-specific art. Lyons has installed two versions of Double Forgery (Nonsite: Essen Soil and Mirrors), a reconstruction of a Robert Smithson sculpture, created at ARTSPACE using found dust, dirt, scrap construction materials, and a live feed video system. This is paired with Chameleon, an installation photograph of a sculpture designed to blend so perfectly into the gallery space that it disappears. The vinyl lettering from the previous exhibition has been rearranged to create the title of the show, thereby inscribing the gallery’s recent past into Lyons’ work.
Steve Lyons is an artist and writer based in London, Ontario. His work is currently on view in a group exhibition at Espace Electra, Fondation EDF in Paris, and he has recently exhibited at Gallery 44 (Toronto), Centre des arts actuels Skol (Montreal), and in the 2009 Windsor Biennial at the Art Gallery of Windsor. He received an MA in Art History from Concordia University and a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Western Ontario. He just returned from a two month artist residency at Cité internationale des arts in Paris, and is beginning PhD course work at the University of Western Ontario this Winter.
http://stevelyons.ca/home
