Onespace is pleased to invite you to experience The Secret Life of Objects by Northern Rivers–based artist Lyndall Phelps.
This exhibition showcases a selection of Phelps’ recent work from her ‘Re-collect’ series, and a condensed survey of pieces created by the artist during residencies in British museums and institutions between 2008 and 2018. The Secret Life of Objects includes work in a range of media, including works on paper, photography, textiles, sculpture, multiples, and ephemera.
Collecting and natural history are recurring themes in Phelps’ art practice. Her archival derivations and alterations unearth a synergy between the material object and the immateriality of research. By meticulously adorning ‘historical pieces’, the artist methodically transforms each item into an object of curiosity and wonderment. As catalogue essayist Kelly Gellatly suggests, “By knowingly drawing on the specificities (and occasional eccentricities) of museum systems and display, Phelps’ work creates a space of possibilities and ‘what ifs’; a place where we hear whispers not declarations, and where the information we receive is a starting point, but not everything.”
The Secret Life of Objects is the first solo exhibition of Lyndall Phelps’ work in Brisbane. It urges us to appreciate the role of objects in scientific and cultural pursuits, and their centrality to the way we try to understand ourselves and our world.
