Lindy Lee (born 1954) is an Australian painter and sculptor of Chinese heritage, whose work blends the cultures of Australia and her ancestral China and explores her Buddhist faith. She has exhibited widely, and is particularly known for her large works of public art, such as several iterations of The Life of Stars at various locations in China and on the forecourt of the Art Gallery of South Australia, and The Garden of Cloud and Stone in Sydney's Chinatown district.
Early life and education
Lee was born in 1954 in Brisbane, Queensland, the daughter of Chinese immigrants who fled Guangdong province in China with their two older children after the rise of communism in that country. Her father arrived first, in 1949, and her mother and siblings, came afterwards, in 1953. Lee's experiences with racism as a child in Australia coupled with her experience of feeling alienated when visiting China because of her inability to speak in the Chinese language contributed to her interest in melding the cultures in her work.
She first qualified as a secondary school teacher at Kelvin Grove Teachers College in 1975. After encountering art galleries on a trip to Europe, she decided to pursue a career in art. She attended the Chelsea School of Art in London, after which she considered a career as an art teacher, but exposure to portraiture and contemporary art in London and elsewhere in Europe decided her to become a professional artist. During her years at graduate school at the Sydney College of the Arts in Australia she made her first portrait utilising photocopiers, a technique which featured prominently in her early work.
After decades as a practising artist, Lee attended the University of New South Wales, from which she achieved her PhD in Fine Art in 2001.
Themes and practice
Initially denying her Chinese heritage and identity, she decided to embrace it and explore it in her art, initially using photos from the family album and creating two-dimensional artworks. Her later work blends the cultures of Australia and her ancestral China and explores her Buddhist faith.
Lee's work began in 1983 with a strong interest in originality and reproductions, utilising photocopiers to reproduce famous portraits over which she painted original work with acrylic paint after distorting the images. The resulting artworks raised questions about "originality and authenticity". Eventually, she began adding portraits of family and others before moving into other art forms, including sculpture. In 2008, during a residency in Kuala Lumpur, she began experimenting with first pierced paper, and then, with soldering irons and blow torches in a studio in Beijing, started burning holes in other materials, developing her distinctive "fire drawings".
As she became more involved in Zen Buddhism, she began to incorporate elements of religion in her work, which often focuses heavily on the theme of suffering. She also reflects Taoist themes, including the interconnectedness of the universe and of nature and humanity.
Works
Lee's most prominent public works include several iterations of The Life of Stars at various locations in China and in Adelaide, South Australia, and The Garden of Cloud and Stone in Sydney's Chinatown district.
The Life of Stars
In 2014, Lee was commissioned by Ting Hsin International Group in Shanghai to create a public art work, at which time she first started working with Urban Art Projects (UAP) in Brisbane, using bronze. After experimenting with a technique inspired by Buddhist spiritual practice which focused on oneness with nature, UAP collaborated with her to create the mirror polished stainless steel, egg-shaped sculpture, The Life of Stars for the commission. The numerous piercings in the steel were arranged in overlapping concentric circles, representing "earth, life, birth and renewal" that is found in Tao and Buddhist principles, referring symbolically to the connectedness of the universe via a concept used in Mahayana Buddhism.