Interview with Artist lyndi Sales

AHC: Can you tell us a bit about your process, themes & inspirations?

Lyndi: Currently I’m fascinated with the unseen, the unpresentable, idea around transcendence and altered states. I guess this stems from an interest in the metaphysical.  It’s about a feeling of knowing something is there but not being able to see it. I’m fascinated with what we know about the universe and how scientists come to the conclusion they do.  The data collected from far off galaxies’ by radio and satellite telescopes always seems so unclear and blurry like code really.  And then the images that they release are so grand and awe inspiring. Sometimes I wonder how much those images have been manipulated.  

Also the idea of apperception and how we interpret what we see though our own filters. My process usually begins with reading books on science and at times philosophy.  As I’m reading I often look up visual references’ to what I’m reading about.  It could be a scientist theory of expansion or a microscopic image of a cell.  The works evolve from that space.  

I love visiting science museums for inspiration.  I recently had access to all the image data captured by the UCT Engineering department where they photographed various microscopic crystals.  This inspired some of my recent work.  In terms of my process, I have been working with a laser machine for a few years and I loved the unexpected results when things went up in flames. Surrendering control with no expected out come was good for me.  

Now I’m back to making with my own hands in a series of woven works and hand cut collages, which is a very different process, more meditative, and every row or piece is considered.  I think my process has always been about accumulation. At the moment is the accumulation of thousands of individually hand cut pieces of paper to create a collage or the accumulation of rows and rows of rope in a woven work. 
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AHC: What first drew you to art? Was there a specific moment in your life or turning point where it became clear to you that you were being called to create?

Lyndi: I was always creative as a child and I remember at age 7 we had a school art competition.  I remember really wanting to win it and I knew who all my competitors were in the class. It was the one subject at school that I felt confident about. Although the idea of becoming an artist was something that only came much later after my undergraduate degree.  I didn’t grow up in an environment that held an appreciation for art so I never really thought of it as a career option. 
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Fortunes And Fortunes
320 x 40 x 320 mm. Lottery paper. 2008


AHC: The caption on your piece 'Hand dyed vilene' reads:  'The person you see physically is the tip of the iceberg' I love this line, I also think it's becoming increasingly  harder for us to see beyond the surface of people, places & events these days. What are your thoughts about this? 

Lyndi: Yes that piece is actually inspired by a quote by the cellist Yo Yo Ma.  I’ve had this post card from a science museum in Paris up on my mood board for ages. It’s of an iceberg where the majority of the ice is concealed beneath water.  

​It reveals both the seen and the unseen.  I’m always fascinated with what is hidden from view but what is such a significant aspect. Such as the ethereal body or the “higher self”.  Or dark matter that comprises 80 percent of the universe, another dimension, and an aura around the physical body, a microscopic world or the ice hidden beneath the water of an iceberg.  The hidden portion of the iceberg is evocative of the unseen.

I think as our world becomes increasingly congested and as we are bombarded by so much to look at that we stop really looking. I know when I’m really busy I withdraw and stop engaging, I stop seeing people or I stop being able to read them. I stop hearing the birds sing and so on. Finding a balance is a challenge. I recently read an interesting book called the Sublime where Simon Morley highlights a world where technology, spectacle and excess eclipse former concepts of nature the individual and society. 

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Chicken-Rat
500 x 900 x 200 mm. Mixed media. 2003

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AHC: Art is a powerful reminder that things are complicated, that appearances and trite definitions simply leave too much out. Your work currently is exploring the role of chance in our lives, the fragility of our existence and increasingly, I would imagine, of the world around us. Do you think that art can serve as a catalyst for our unconscious? That it can put before us what we forget or all too easily try to avoid? That it complicates us?

Lyndi: In the early stage of making the series of work on the Helderberg plane crash I often didn’t make reference to the crash, as it was a wound I didn’t want to reveal too much about.  But strangely enough there were people who could just feel that the work was about loss. Often these people were experiencing their own loss and through seeing some of my works were able to access their pain.  So yes I think art can certainly serve as a catalyst to the unconscious. 

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AHC: Who are some of your artistic influences? Is there anyone outside of the art world who has had a huge impact on your work, writers, filmmakers, philosophers etc? 

Lyndi: One of my favorite books is The Sublime a series of essays by various writers on artists. Also Networks by Bang Larsen
Director David Lynch has been a huge inspiration. As a teenager I watched the “Twin peaks” series but later on I discovered that he is a huge advocate for transcendental meditation, which has been a source of interest in my work.

I love the work of Director Terrence Malick (Tree of life and recently Knight of cups). I sometimes listen to lectures on the great philosophers as audio book while I’m working.  I have made reference to Sartre “Being and nothingness” and Martin Heidegger. I’m currently reading Bill Bryson “History of everything” which is a starting point and then when I discover something really interesting I will read further on that subject. 

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Distorted View The Sun Newspaper
80 x 101 cm. Newspaper. 2010


AHC: What is the first work of art you encountered that took your breath away?

Lyndi: I’m not sure if this was the first one but I remember seeing my very first Van Gogh at the Yale University Gallery, it’s the work titled “ The night café”.  I was moved to tears.  It was such an emotional piece for me and yet I had seen it numerous times in books with little impact as a student but somehow seeing the painting in the flesh really made a huge impact on me. 

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AHC: Do you have any upcoming exhibits or new projects you'd like to tell people about?

Lyndi: Yes I have a solo show At Circa Gallery Everard Read in JHB.  The show runs from the 1 September until the 28th September

Next year I will have a solo show with M Contemporary in Sydney at the end of February 2017. 


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Research Images 

protein crystals by Emma kunz

All images other than research images © Lyndi Sales

To see more of Lyndi's work or to find out about upcoming exhibits or projects visit her website at www.lyndisales.com