Lisa Chandler: Negotiating the Non-Place

Preview: 6:30pm Thursday June 14th

The central theme of Lisa Chandler’s body of work can be seen, as the exhibition title suggest, in the non-place. A term coined by Marc Augé it refers to the transitory spaces, which are defined by city dwellers moving through rather than inhabiting. Some days you can find Lisa lingering at intersections, stations and bus stops in cities, observing moments, which will later make their way onto the canvas. The artist is fascinated with crowded urban environments of the modern city and all that it represents.

Acting as a flâneur in the contemporary world, Lisa’s observations comment on the apparent contradictions of the city space. The anonymous figures build up in her large-scale paintings; people are layered, obliterated and reformed across the canvas. The process results in strong and intriguing works, which highlight the relationship between the crowd dynamic and the quiet of the individual; she invites you to share the individual's sense of freedom.

“I like to walk in a city, I believe it is the best method to obtain a “feeling” of the space. I'm interested in the transition of urban dwellers, and the effect they have on, urban spaces as they pass through them.”

In May of this year Lisa Chandler was invited to the Affective Landscapes Conference hosted by Derby and Portsmouth Universities to speak on urban wandering and the non-place, and its presence in her work. These themes feature heavily in the exhibition Negotiating the Non-Place, developed for her Master of Fine Arts graduation exhibition at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design.

“The non-place is a world thus surrendered to solitary individuality, to the fleeting, the temporary and ephemeral” - Marc Augé, 2008