Nerve Magazine - Art and Artefact by Lady Lillith Leveigh

Art and Artefact by Lady Lillith Leveigh

By Victoria Samantha Smith 27/11/2010

Photographs © Artist 2010

Lady Lillith Leveigh has been a professional practicing artist for the past twenty years. She designs sculptural installations set on ancient cultures in a post modern context to address the concepts of body politics, spirituality and the interrelations on art and artefact. The very nature of the familiar by cultural identity and heritage, the objects produced and inherited through artifacts; all go to formulate her interest in Art, Science and History and a relative process in human history to everyone on this planet.

Her art practice is a fusion of broader vocations and research. A visual language that has been conceived and evolved from her passions in Science and History. Fine Art techniques are combined with other disciplines to produce three dimensional, sculptural, installations. To address the intrinsic complexities in cultural and institutional hierarchies. The ideologies of the canon versus commodification in mass media and popular culture of art and artefact, particularly to juxtapose such objects in diversifying spaces from the gallery to the urban and rural landscapes where meaning and interpretation.

Her art has been exhibited in many galleries, but with an added interventionist approach of public spaces. Some of these creative projects have included participation to international festivals. She has worked independently and collaboratively, both as a Visual Artist and Writer with UK and international practitioners.

She has further worked as a Sculptor on cast modeling for gaming figures promoted for Sci-fi and Fantasy market outlets and has work, both written and visual, published in an Archeological Research publications. Her combined professional activities where Art, Science and History have come together have included other commissions with international collectors, as well as writing a fictional pieces of work set on these themes.

She is currently in research and development of a new series of work to be launched in 2011. This new work is to inspire and challenge societal preconceptions with a unique twist to be unveiled.

I went to her studio to find out more about her and her work.

VSS: When did you first become interested in art and recognise yourself as an artist?
LAS: I did not necessarily become interested in art per say. It was and is more a case of it being a reflex like breathing, the beating of the heart and the blink response with your eyes. It is a compulsion from my inception. As for being an artist it is a title like everything else in life. It is something you are labeled with. What I do is a reflex and something that is instinctive and intuitive.

VSS: Can you explain your work?
LAS: My work, how can one put this, without repeating oneself or sounding pedantic. In the dark recesses of one's mind these creations and ideas; what you will. are there, just there. They surface so I create, just simply create. It is like an instinctive reflex.

VSS: Your current work is set around the artefact as contemporary art, such as the mummified sculptures. How did this evolve?
LAS: Where to start? Firstly, from my very beginning there has always been a darkness, if you will, that has shrouded me. A fascination of the macabre. They say a baby's first sense to the outside world occurs while still in their mother's womb. Maybe, this carries a little resonance, as my mother read Edgar Allan Poe while she was carrying me. As a child, I had a natural propensity towards the darker aspects and grotesqueness of nature. This encapsulated my fascination of fossils from humans and prehistoric creatures. If you want, all things dead. In its way, this naturally led onto history and artefacts left by our ancestors, this included human remain, i.e., mummies. Ergo, the reasons, possibly, for the nature of what I create.

VSS: You have worked between the commercial sector of art in model making to pursuing your independent art practice. How do these differ and where do your passion lie?
LAS: In anything commercial and industrial we are making or creating a piece for other parties, the rules and boundaries of expectation that have to be complied with. I am making a product and not necessarily a creation of free thought. Although the thought process and techniques and discipline are still to the same requirements. The difference in my practice is the freedom of will to let those images explode into life from my mind. A pretty dark place indeed!

VSS: What artists have inspired you and why?
LAS: I could be clichéd and plum for Leonardo Da Vinci, but personally I prefer the likes of Michel Angelo, Rembrandt, Durer and such. Da Vinci is overplayed for this reason and has seriously become overrated in my opinion.

VSS: What other subjects influence and shape your work?
LAS: My other interests are Science and History. To a degree even Religion. There is also the everyday influences of life that shape my work. Although I will concede religious bigots and bigots in general do wind me up! So, I like to push back from time to time and challenge preconceptions of what is and subjects explored within the art. With our precocious religious 'friends' I like to use Galileo sentiment: 'God created the universe and science helps explain it'. Trust me, mix it with the theory of Evolution and spice it with a little bit of Leviticus thrown in for good measure it really agitates them! The same technique using the relevant information in regards and bigots in other areas can also be used. They do not like it and I do not like them!

VSS: What motivates you to produce the work you do and the chosen media?
LAS: As I have previously stated, it is a compulsion to create. Like an itch that does not go, until it has been scratched properly. That includes the way I want the work to be presented. Whether it be a drawing, painting or sculpture. Also, as regards media or whatever I can lay my hands on will be used through to recycling. This is why the materials for each piece can vary greatly.

VSS: Do you use any other creative approaches or media in the research and production of your work?
LAS: I have a compulsion, an urge, so I create and depending what materials are available I instinctively respond. That pretty much it in a nutshell!

VSS: What do you plan for the future as an artist in your professional practice?
LAS: You can plan all you want, but the arts arena is far from being a certainty. Even in times of stability. This does not mean I stop creating, it just means I could be tomorrow I do a show or even maybe a couple of years. That all depends on the sagacity of pen pushers. Sorry, I meant to say bureaucrats! Those who hold the purse string and who dictate and dictate what and what is not art.

VSS: What are your positive and negative experiences of being an artist?
LAS: My positive experiences with my practice is when people find something of themselves in it. I do my work, but I do not feel it is necessary for the viewer to have the same concepts as me; after all art is subjective. Although I do get a wicked pleasure out of playing with people's minds and perceptions. My negative experience relate to the 'Lovie! Darling!' set, the sycophants, the hangers on. Those corpulent, expressionless vessels that are less than echoes. Do I need to say anymore!?

VSS: What do you want to be remembered for?
LAS: I have been told by others: 'Once one was met I was never forgotten!' I am named after the first woman, Lillith, who had a rather unfair reputation. Possibly, because she would not be subservient to Adam. In short, she was one feisty chick who became much maligned with the ages - Pity! I think I will consign myself to history and the fates decide how I will be remembered. After all nobody ever sees the same thing. C'est vie!

VSS: Thank you for taking the time with me. Good luck for the future.

Email: lady_lillith_leveigh[at]live.com
Website: http://ladylillithleveigh.webs.com

Printer friendly page

Sorry Comments Closed