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Artist aims to expand perceptions

Artist Lisa Benson opened her new exhibit "Tremulous: an experimental drawing project" at Whare...
Artist Lisa Benson opened her new exhibit "Tremulous: an experimental drawing project" at Whare Taupua in Invercargill recently. PHOTO: LUISA GIRAO
An Invercargill artist is inviting people to contemplate, engage, think and feel.
 
Lisa Benson opened  her exhibition "Tremulous: an experimental drawing project" at Whare Taupua in Invercargill last week.
 
Benson uses different mediums to explore the seen and unseen forces that shape people's understanding and interpretation of the universe.
 
"There's a shakiness and a vulnerability to being human, especially at the moment. 
 
"`I feel there's so much genocide, there's so much uncomfortableness in the world and part of this exhibition for me is about creativity as medicine, a medicine for me and then an invitation for the audience to come and contemplate something."
 
She said her inspirations were based on her passions, which included the perception of time, astrology and uncertainty.
 
Meditation cushions were placed throughout the space and Benson said there were clues to trigger feelings and thinking in the audience.
 
She acknowledged that with fast-paced life it was hard for people to spend time contemplating an art piece as it was believed the average time someone looked at a painting was three seconds.
 
However, she would love attendees to take the time to engage and contemplate the pieces, and even return to the space  another day to expand their perceptions of her art.
 
"I think with `Tremulous', there's a certain invitation to be OK with the wobble and the idea that maybe at a deeper level, we're on the brink of change.
 
"We're on the brink of something being different. We're on the brink of understanding something that we don't necessarily already know.
 
"It's a demanding show, I think, for people to engage with and I can just see what happens and just kind of experiment with it," Benson said.
 
She also explained why she labelled  it an "experimental drawing project" as it involved different mediums like installations, photography and paintings.
 
"I think it's the easiest word to use to explain or to talk about all of the things that are in here. Photographs, paintings, sculpture, installation, there's flags, there's a drawing that's going to move, there's meditation cushions, there's light.
 
"So even just the way light moves through a space, I would call that drawing. So I kind of call everything a drawing in a way. It's a little bit of a challenge. People may come here expecting to see a drawing, especially expecting to see a drawing of something representational, but there's nothing in the show I don't think that's representational."
 
She believed  everyone who visited the exhibition could leave with a different perception or interpretation.
 
"Even me as I'm learning through the process, which is kind of why I get away with calling it an experimental drawing," she said with a laugh.
 
The free exhibit will run Tuesday to Friday, 10am-4pm and Saturday from 10am-2pm until February 22 at Whare Taupua (34 Forth St).