Lincoln Austin’s sculptural and multi-media works playfully explore the poetics of geometry, pattern, optics and scale. Created while the Museum’s artist-in-residence, Lincoln’s exhibition, Topography – place writing, references Brisbane’s unique sub-tropical architecture and landscape.
Lincoln Austin was Museum of Brisbane’s Artist-in-Residence from 5 – 27 February. During his residency he created 10 sculptural works using flyscreen to playfully explore the idiosyncratic elements of Brisbane’s subtropical architecture, an architecture influenced and shaped by the unique conditions of the city, its weather, and its landscape.
Lincoln writes “From colonial to contemporary, the architecture of Brisbane has developed to keep the heat out but let the air in. From the garden, through screening and shading, across deep eaves and wide verandas, this is an architecture of permeability, filtering the outside world on its way through these layers. The choice of an ephemeral, architectural material for realising these works reflects this permeability and generates hazy optical effects akin to memories. The places we inhabit become repositories of memory. Layers of the remembered accumulate around the spaces in which we live our lives. In time, memories laid down stratify to form a mental landscape, a topography, mapping our journey to here.”
Lincoln’s sculptural and multi-media works playfully explore the poetics of geometry, pattern, optics and scale. For more than a decade his public artworks have been part of Brisbane’s evolving urban landscape with key works in Burnett Lane, The University of Queensland, South Brisbane, the Mater and Prince Charles hospitals, the Go-Between bridge, shopping centres, hotels and homes.
His arts practice focuses on creating works that interact with, question, and explore his world. Many of his works use varied materials and techniques to explore the idea of perception and its effects on interaction and understanding, changing as the viewer moves. The resulting artworks are diverse in material, delicacy, and scale but all share this common intention.
Museum of Brisbane’s Artist-in-Residence was launched in June 2017 and is a month-long residency, followed by an exhibition, open to artists and creatives from all disciplines.
To find out more about the program or how to apply, visit our information page.
