We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Lucy Mackenzie / England b.1952 / Both worlds 1975 / Wood and glass box with paint, paper, silk, thread, metal, feathers, leaves, starfish, sand, shells and figurine / 37.5 x 34 x 4cm / Gift of the Contemporary Art Society, London 1980 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Lucy Mackenzie
Lucy MackenzieBoth worlds 1975
Not Currently on Display
In Both worlds, Lucy Mackenzie invites the viewer to contemplate the selection and arrangement of objects that draw us in to her serene, private and timeless world. Mackenzie says:
A painting may be a pure celebration of something that catches my eye, the pose and fragility of a flower, the pattern on a seashell, the way light falls on plain domestic objects. I like the fact that these sort[s] of objects have been painted by artist[s] for hundreds even thousands of years.1
Endnotes:
1. Artist statement, ‘Biography of Lucy Mackenzie’, Leicester Galleries, <www.leicestergalleries.com/archive-and-images/artists-a-z/m>, viewed May 2019.
Sudanese-born English artist Lucy Mackenzie grew up in the Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall.
Mackenzie makes paintings, drawings and box-like assemblages composed from driftwood, twigs, stones, glass, sea-worn pottery, moss and shells from among the abundance of treasures to be found on the beach. Each assemblage is a magical little world unto itself, and underlying all her work is a sense of peace, calm and order.