Chapter House Lane presents a new installation by Lani Seligman from 6 – 30 September 2012. The large neon work will be unveiled at an opening on Thursday 6 September from 6-8pm, with drinks held by the light of its purple effusion.
Having previously exhibited at Gertrude Contemporary, Conical and Bus Projects, the current VCA PhD student, takes on the city space using the window to create an active, communicative piece that contrasts with the dormant, sedentary surrounds.
With an artistic bang, ‘Yes, but’ is a work where scale, like a billboard bombardment, demands attention, but unlike everyday advertisements has an alternate agenda. The affirming proposition has a sting of uncertainty in the tail which better echoes reality. Decisiveness is so rarely black and white. ‘Yes’ is just a word – an antonym to ‘no’ – and so lacking in the complexities we often want, or need to convey.
Complex, contradictory answers are the stuff of humans. As is our eagerness to please. It is within this context that Seligman confronts our idle ‘yes’ and asks us to stay a while: in defiance, to redefine, justify and uncover our willing ways.
For more on Lani Seligman you can view her CV here.