Lindsay Seers

Suffering 2017 – 2018

Materials: wood, corrugated metal, benches, paint, HD dual projection onto a house shaped screen, stereo sound with amplifier and subwoofer, objects and paintings by Leo Kelly.

Commissioned by Unconformity Festival and Australian Government, exhibited in MONA. (For all enquiries contact [email protected])

MONA text: "The work invites visitors to experience and admire the work and life of deceased Queenstown (Tasmania) resident, Leo Kelly. Displayed within a re-constructed tin-hut tabernacle, visitors watch Seers' film which is focused on Kelly. Alongside the tabernacle is an installation of Kelly’s paintings which reveals his relationship with faith, from visions of angels in the landscape near his home to portraits of the Holy Virgin Mary. As Seers relates, 'He told me he had met Mary and Jesus many times, particularly by the fountain in his garden'. "

The installation was originally made for the Unconformity Festival in Queenstown, Tasmania and has been re-edited and adapted for exhibition in MONA.

Text from a review in Artlink by Andrew Harper for The Unconformity Festival

UK artist Lindsay Seers has been to Queenstown before and made vital work from her visits, but her latest work Suffering is an experience that is almost unprecedented. Seers, with the assistance of Ray Arnold, has made this work about the now-deceased Queenstown resident Leo Kelly. Seers has trod carefully and made a humble and admirably respectful work in homage to this man and his art. She constructed a small tin hut, made from a characteristic type of corrugated iron, and placed small benches in it to encourage people to sit and watch a film in which Kelly may be seen, his voice heard, the interior of his home revealed, and (most importantly) his art seen. Kelly’s painting was an expression of his deep, committed religious faith.

After seeing the short film, one then encounters Kelly’s paintings – his entire output as an artist – and some relics of his encounters with faith. Kelly found rocks and saw the holy Virgin and more in them: these are lovingly preserved and presented as gifts from God. But it is Kelly’s paintings that truly astonish: Kelly was clearly untrained, and possibly hadn’t seen much art, but his strong personal faith is clearly expressed in each and every work. Kelly saw celestial lights and was a visionary. He is raw, but this it not outsider art. He was a private person, who lived in Queenstown all his life, and was well-known about town. It is not entirely inappropriate to compare him with William Blake, the great English poet and painter, for his work is the translation of religious ecstasy and unshakeable belief.

Kelly’s work is the kind of art one hears of, but is highly unlikely to encounter. It is evocative and potent, and seeing it at this festival felt like a remarkable privilege. It is hard to avoid the hyperbolic response here, but Kelly’s work and Seer’s sensitive presentation made for a memorable experience. It was the highlight of The Unconformity for me. It also captured the focus on the people of this strange, beautiful mining town and the powerful sense of community.

Sound with Pendle Poucher and Lindsay Seers, animation with Keith Sargent. Original structure with Peter Turner and Cath Chick

See also Exhibitions page

http://www.lindsayseers.info/exhibition_node/431

Related Work:
http://www.lindsayseers.info/exhibition_node/423