๐๏ธ Welcome to Henri de La Poste, an: ๐ฉโ๐จ Art Book Library ๐งโ๐จ Artist Residency ๐จโ๐จ Co-Working Artist Studio ๐ฉ๐ปโ๐จ Digital Exhibition Archive & Digest ๐ง๐ปโ๐จ Ephemeral Project Space Since 2015, our Digital Archive has gathered scanned material from exhibitions we have visited. These scans are available through ourโ โ โ Link Treeโ โ โ so you can view the PDFs, and are also uploaded into the โ โ โ Google Notebook Learning Modelโ โ โ , where the material can be discussed, annotated, and studied collectively. From these sources, the LM generates conversations with two AI hosts. We call these podcasts a โDeep Diveโ: a chance to explore art, history, and criticism through active dialogue. The exhibition, "Colin Lyons: A Modern Cult of Monuments", was held at CIRCA ART ACTUEL in Montreal, Quebec, running from August 29 to October 3, 2015. The exhibit's themes, also summarized as "Colin Lyons: archรฉologue du futur" (archaeologist of the future), revolve around memory, ruins, and the complexities of preservation. Artist Background and Medium Colin Lyons, born in 1985 in Windsor, Ontario, grew up in Petrolia, Ontario, "Canada's original oil boomtown". His background informs his interest in industrial ruins and sacrificial landscapes. Lyonsโs artistic practice fuses printmaking, sculpture, and chemical experiments, often pushing the role of the etching plate beyond its traditional function. Lyons explores fragility, impermanence, planned obsolescence, and the nature of what society chooses to preserve. Lyons received his BFA from Mount Allison University (2007) and his MFA in printmaking from the University of Alberta (2012). Themes and Specific Works Lyons is sometimes referred to as an "artist-archaeologist". In the work featured in A Modern Cult of Monuments, Lyons chemically treats various artifacts collected from ruined places. Some pieces are carefully soaked in acid, while others are engraved or removed to highlight marks of corrosion. This treatment reflects the artistโs interest in the status given to industrial ruins and moving fragments from forgotten places. Key concepts explored include: Planned Obsolescence: This concept, which extends beyond products to include ways of thinking, communicating, and technology, is viewed by Lyons as a contributor to the social loss of reference points, whether individual or collective.Time Machine: One work, the Time Machine, aims to alter objects by both preserving them from corrosion and damaging them, visually depicting their decay and assigned use cycle.Lyons also investigated the Six-Mile Mill, a forgotten industrial site located ten kilometers from Kamloops, British Columbia. His work stemming from this site, which involved detailed research resembling detective work, includes a three-meter-long brochure printed with ferric chloride ink that captures the mill's rapid destruction. Another installation, New Monuments/Old Foundations, is a video piece. In this work, the sounds of stones rubbing together and rustling grass contribute to an impression of physical and temporal displacement, allowing the viewer to perceive time more slowly than usual. The essay accompanying the exhibition was written by Geneviรจve Goyer-Ouimette.
