Chimeras! Oh my!
Ben Lysaght (Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Pakeha) is a multi-disciplinary artist living in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Chimeras! Oh my! is a collage exhibition which experiments and embraces the tactility of papers and the happenstance in finding old imagery.
Collage, for Lysaght, is about creating new relationships out of disparate sources and finding a way to make sense out of the chaos of random stacks found in book fairs and op shops. This is often their last stop before being destroyed, collage gives them the ability to be reimagined within new contexts.
In Chimeras! Oh my! Lysaght has brought a magical lens to the printed image, transforming symbols of pop culture, mythology and sexuality into something both familiar and new. There are moments of occult ritual, hidden puns, and if you look (not so) carefully, a stray dick joke.
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