Exhibition
‘är-“kIv presented a solo exhibition by artist Allison Lasley featuring a series of small square watercolours—each piece incorporating cuttings, clippings, and other materials embedded in layers of paint, plaster, and wax. The works embodied the artist’s own process of ‘archiving’ the world around her, capturing memories, personal reflections, and sensory impressions through an extended series of symbolic images. Inspired by Lasley’s travels, many of the featured artworks were derived from two distinct bodies of work—the first, her Rome Journals, produced during Lasley’s residency as a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome in 1997, the latter part of her Cayman Series, produced over a five-year period when the artist was resident in the Cayman Islands. Lasley’s wider Cayman Series included several hundred pieces whose forms reflect the intense light and sun-bleached hues of the Caribbean and its vivid sounds and smells. Viewed collectively and hung in sequence, the featured artworks offered a visual ‘catalogue’ of Lasley’s life and experiences—the coded meaning of which audiences were left to decipher. Ar-Kiv was on view at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands from 4 May to 24 August 2006, with artworks sold to benefit the Cayman Islands Cancer Society and honour the artist, who succumbed to cancer in 2004.
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About the Artist
Allison Lasley
1948–2004
Allison Lasley was born in Chicago but grew up in San Francisco where she attended California College of Arts and Crafts, and later spent much of her time in New York City. The work of this artist takes the form of a visual journal, with series of small square watercolours of standard size, almost like cards in a rolodex, which may incorporate cuttings, clippings and other materials embedded in layers of paint, plaster, and wax. The artist received an artist residency at the American Academy in Rome, Italy, where she produced her Rome Journals. Later, over a five-year period, she spent time in the Cayman Islands where she created her Cayman Series, comprising several hundred pieces which featured in a 2006 solo exhibition at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands.
