L.Robertson: All of the Suddens
May 31 - June 24
Reception June 3 from 2-4pm
Free and open to the public.
Artist Talk June 10 from 1-3pm
Free and open to the public but you must reserve a seat via email at outsidersandothers@gmail.com
This is the first public exhibition of L.Robertson's artwork.
L.Robertson: All of the Suddens
"All of the Suddens is a visual, event-based memoir that I began to work on when something out of the ordinary happened – when I was injured and couldn’t do what I ordinarily do. This exhibit was born in one of those extraordinary moments when we have some kind of loss or encounter a problem that sends us off course and “un-makes” us for a time.
For me, this was a freak car accident, something like the straw on a camel’s back that unleashed memories and dreams about other events that happened in a flash and somehow left their mark.
These are what I call “the suddens,” happenings in my life that came from nowhere.
And this exhibit is about my own small process of revisiting them, restoring myself by catching up with them. Painting the suddens is a way to re-member – by really taking time to think about something that happened. I imagined an image or scenario or a little narrative – and I contemplated that while painting it and after it was done. I think about the echo of each incident, the sensations and the circumstances – how it scared me, numbed me, or wore away at something, fortified me, exerted an invisible pull --or push … Kind of a cumulative, impact assessment.
This work is about existential things-- something that each of us know about."
"I am a social scientist who collaborates with different communities to document their knowledge
about different topics: this includes (sometimes difficult) histories, experiences with colonialism
and other forms of violence, as well as drug use. Often, we work with life stories and oral
histories. Before I returned to university, I was a seasonal life guard for many years and a scuba
dive master. I grew up in Australia and travelled a lot in my 20’s and 30’s."
L.Robertson
Prints are available of every piece in this exhibition.
The prints are open edition, full colour, digital prints signed by the artist, and only $25 each. Price does not include shipping costs.
Prints of the 10"x10" and 8"x10" paintings will be printed at actual size. Any pieces larger will be reduced and printed at 11" max.
You can order them during the exhibition dates only. Once the exhibition is over we will print what was ordered and no more.
To order simply email us at outsidersandothers@gmail.com and put "print order" in the subject line.
L.Robertson
Lifelines
20” x 20”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Lifelines (2017 - )
an unexpected, violent event. soft tissue trouble and an injury involving brain metabolism.
jaw to dash and skull to windshield; knees, hands, hips to who knows where.
-- all of the suddens have come out of me ever since
drawn from an archive of bizarre possibility,
now there’s something we all know.
L.Robertson
Nostalgia Cape for a Lost World
18” x 24”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Nostalgia Cape for a Lost World (on-going)
This is about the small death of emigration : dislocation,
the sudden irrelevance of knowledge about the most common things (insects, animals & plants, the quality of light, the rhythm of weather, the danger of places; fragrances, colours, humour, slang, gestures, politics, myths, friend and foe …). the need for the refuge of memory.
L.Robertson
Folklore
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Folklore
I am asked to believe, tasked to believe
that some tiger of suddens stalks me.
[it’s like folklore, I think. a vivid image in a misty mirror.]
the thing with all of this is -- I hear,
suddens cohere.
L.Robertson
Complicated
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Complicated
overwhelmed & unsure where to lighten the load.
“facticity” in existentialism: one’s past; being in a particular state of affairs which one has no control over,
… again and again.
L.Robertson
Dawn Dive
14” x 11”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Dawn Dive
this is about being in one place but being reminded of the atmosphere of somewhere else.
-- looking up in an old growth, maple grove feels like scuba diving in a kelp forest.
L.Robertson
La La La Gottcha
12” x 16”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
La La La Gotcha (1986)
Steamy, that tropical night arrival, the smell of insect spray.
No reservation no worries – 24 – strong – alone - low on money.
He drove the van for travellers, the ones I got into for hostels.
He saw I was a diver, he knew a boat, had a brother …
The look in the eyes of the village doctor… post office posters of missing travellers.
L.Robertson
The Weight of Various Things
20” x 16”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
The Weight of Various Things
this has to be learned, we do not just know this
mode of sensing, a sense of floating
afloat in light, alight in water
over and again … more later.
L.Robertson
Around that Time
20” x 20”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Around That Time (1972-74)
Melbourne, Victoria.
my haunted neighbourhood:
WW2; the overturned truck of raging bulls; mourning and its strife.
a tiger waiting behind the gate.
L.Robertson
First Ghost
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
First Ghost (circa. 1972)
this grandmother (here spectred)
a familial lost soul who visited me.
--was decades before I knew she took her own life. Decided herself.
L.Robertson
One Arm Free
8” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
One Arm Free
stuck in the vicinity of a storm
but starting to get free of it.
L.Robertson
Dreamscape: End of Life
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Dreamscape: End of Life
dreams stir the reservoir of stories that cannot be unheard, reflecting the violences around us.
people gathering for a performance in a neighbourhood park,
a woman starts spinning while many people are watching … scary.
L.Robertson
The Fundamentalists
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
The Fundamentalists (1994)
Ambushed by men of church and state
Felt their spittle in my face, while they closed ranks around me in that isolated place.
Threatened. Blind-eyed.
Told not to leave a trace of their women in my wake.
[and I obeyed, a tremor made]
L.Robertson
First Car (problem)
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
First Car (problem) 1969
Perth, Western Australia.
that shadow, the near miss –
that drop car
could have touched it.
[Sucked the ordinary smell of sunshine right out of me.]
L.Robertson
Waking with Bears
12” x 12”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Dreamscape: Waking with Bears
well, it was a false charge, and the bear was drunk from the apple tree behind the house.
that night and for a few, I dreamed bear dreams.
waking in a mountain field, by a highway
the bears were waking up too. (**my claws and our colours for dramatic effect only).
Boiling (1992)
This boiler room a scary scene
“don’t touch it” he told me,
then grabbed the very thing – his screams, the fiery water spurt.
his skin that peeled off with his shirt; oxygen hiss, cold shower,
blistered, white-shocked, waiting hours.
[those ambulance men thought I should have said my friend had HIV – it fed their rural dread].
L.Robertson
Dreamscape: Water Being
10” x 10”
Mixed media on canvas
NFS
Dreamscape: Water Beings
walking into a tropical ocean at night, I hit my shins on coral bommies (submerged reefs).
looking out, there are others walking from the water towards the beach - where there was a boy I knew, who I thought went missing.