Artist statement
Artist’s Statement
Victoria Lucas (b.1982) is an interdisciplinary artist based in the North of England. Working predominantly with video and installation, her practice explores the ephemeral nature of existence over the passage of time. The transient nature of media selected is used to fleetingly re-construct and re-imagine past events, often from the starting point of an everyday object, sound or situation. These elements form an investigation into the everyday, capturing and bringing to light minutiae as a means to address underlying existential concerns.
Recent works have included The Search, an installation created for the Swap Project at The Hepworth Gallery in 2010. Comprising three speakers and a mixing desk, the sound of three voices fills the room and then dissipates, referencing the fading memory of their mother’s laugh that the artist and her two siblings strive to replicate. In Failed Attempts (2010), the artist re-constructs the consequences of a happening, by casting a series of dead insects in bronze. The creatures story of failure to escape from the gallery holds a metaphorical resonance in relation to our own failures, hopes and desires.
12 Months of Neon Love focuses on a year long collaboration between Victoria Lucas and Richard William Wheater. A red neon sign presenting a series of well known love song lyrics is erected for one year, its fleeting sentiments changing every four weeks. Fickle and transitory, the words echo the spectrum of emotions that all lovers experience, whether in love for a few months, a year, or a life time. The ephemeral nature of the project echoes the feeling of love and its limitations, and is as much about the pain that all lovers endure as it is the euphoric rapture the feeling of love can bestow. When the power is turned off and the neon lights go out, the work only exists in the photographs captured and the fading memory of the people who experienced it.
Biography
Lucas is currently based at Bloc Studios in Sheffield, UK. She exhibits both within the UK and internationally, and has artworks in private and institutional collections (including Tate Library and Archive, Tate Britain). In addition to this, she has worked both independently and collaboratively on a large number of curated projects, co-directed a Berlin-based residency programme in 2008/9, and is co-founder of Arts_Hub, a listserve that connects a growing network of visual artists and arts organisations in the Wakefield district. She completed her MFA at The University of Leeds in 2007, and is currently a Fine Art Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire.
Public realm
- 2012 12 Months of Neon Love, Neon Workshops, Wakefield
- 2012 Poke, NHS Wilberforce Health Centre, Hull
Employment
- 2011 Fine Art Lecturer, University of Central Lancashire, Preston
Solo exhibitions
- 2013 Interruptions, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, USA
- 2009 Work in Progress, Lumen Screening Lab, Leeds, UK
- 2009 Archive Books, Clarke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- 2008 Transmission, Jane Askew Gallery, Norwich, UK
- 2008 Limelight, 42 New Briggate Gallery / Opera North, Leeds, UK
Group exhibitions
- 2011 Unfolding Sequences, Studio xx, Montreal, Quebec
- 2011 Host02 International Artists Screening, Art Funkl, Manchester
- 2011 Follow-Ed (After Hokusai), Arnofini, Bristol
- 2011 Artists Book as Document, University of the West of England, Bristol
- 2010 Escape, Conjunction 2010, Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-trent
- 2010 Örebro International Videoart Festival, Bio Roxy, Örebro, Sweden
- 2010 Digital Media Labs Exhibition, Eleven Gallery, Hull
- 2010 The Swap Project, The Hepworth, Wakefield
- 2010 Philosophy in Practise, De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam
- 2010 Cabinet of Curiosities, University of Leeds, Leeds
- 2010 Danger, The Rag Factory, London
- 2009 Act Up Hellas, Athen's Central Metro Station, Athens, Greece
- 2009 Splashback, Clarke Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Inkubator 2, DLI Museum, Durham Art Gallery, Durham
- 2009 Signals through the Frame, PHB Friedrichshöhe Gallery, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Athens Film Festival, Athens, Greece
- 2009 Handmade Paper, Artists Books, The Ice House, Berkeley Springs, USA
- 2009 Roaming, 91qm, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Stomper Shorts, Bethnal Green WMC, London
- 2009 Copenhagen, The Apartment, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Traces (Friday 13th), 20qm, Berlin, Germany
- 2008 I am The Space Where I am, The Berlin Office, Berlin, Germany
- 2008 More Things In Heaven…, Durham Cathedral, Durham
- 2008 Relics and Regeneration, Holy Trinity, Leeds, UK
- 2008 Separations, 67-71 bath Road, Holbeck, Leeds, UK
- 2008 From Book to Book, Leeds City Art Gallery, Leeds, UK
Curated projects
- 2012 12 Months of Neon Love Exhibition, Neon Workshops, Wakefield
- 2011 Sites in Site, Empty Shop Unit for the Art House, Wakefield
- 2011 Welcome to the Real World, Project Space Leeds, Leeds
- 2011 Open, The Art House, Wakefield
- 2010 Promised Land, The Berlin Office, Neukolln, Berlin
- 2010 Collect, Westgate Studios, Wakefield
- 2010 Instinct, The Moor, Sheffield
- 2009 Street Fest 2009, Transit, London
- 2009 A night of Artist’s Video, Lagari, Berlin, Germany
- 2009 Geerten Verheus | Lucy Powell, 20qm, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany
- 2008 I am The Space Where I am, The Berlin Office, Berlin, Germany
- 2008 Separations, 67-71 bath Road, Holbeck, Leeds, UK
- 2007 Summer Programme, 42 New Briggate Gallery, Leeds, UK
- 2007 The Workers, Exhibition of works by staff at the YSP, Various events
Artist talks
- 2012 Lecture as part of 'Books in the Digital World', Coventry University, Coventry
- 2011 Visiting Speaker Lecture, University of Leeds, Leeds
Residencies
- 2010 Digital Media Lab Residency, Digital Media Lab, Hull
- 2009 Art Residency, Lumen, Leeds
- 2008 5 Month Residency, The Berlin Office, Berlin, Germany
Competitions, prizes and awards
- 2011 Grants for the Arts, Arts Council, Yorkshire
- 2009 Arts Council Yorkshire Delegation, Ars Electronica Festival, Linz, Austria
- 2007 MAstars Award, Axis, University of Leeds
- 2006 Professional Practise Award, Arts and Humanities Research Council, University of Leeds
- 2005 Grants for the Arts Award, Arts Council Yorkshire, Yorkshire
- 2004 Commendation in Critical Studies, Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich
- 2004 Noel Spencer Prize for Life Figure, Norwich School of Art and Design, Norwich
Publications
- 2013 Interruptions
- 2013 Remedy
- 2012 12 MONTHS OF NEON LOVE
- 2012 U8
Web links - gallery/work/projects
Web links - article/press
Personal website
