Rachel Robertson

Falling Ink: an Introduction

Rachel Robertson

You are reading falling ink, words that have been placed – or flung, perhaps – on the page by twelve Curtin University writers deeply touched by the art and philosophy of Lindy Lee. We gathered to hear her speak, to walk through the exhibition Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop, and watch the exhibition video, and then responded with our own original works – poems, short essays and reflections.

Just as Lee does, we borrow phrases and images, play with ideas of replica, homage and originality. Where Lee speaks of the ‘unearthing of the image through gesture’1, we uncover words from image and gesture, creating our own stories and imaginative leaps. We do not aim to interpret or evaluate Lee’s work; we use her work as inspiration and guide in crafting our own written artefacts.

Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop is a major survey exhibition of Lindy Lee’s work from the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, which travelled to the John Curtin Gallery in mid-2022. The title is a quote from Zen Master Eihei Dogen and demonstrates the influence of Zen Buddhism on Lee’s life and work. The moon represents both eternity and change. A dew drop is everything that is fragile and momentary and yet takes the whole cosmos to create it.

As Lee has noted:

My work is all about time. In Zen Buddhism the essence of being –or the fabric of being – is time. The primary truth is that everything

changes from moment to moment – nothing is permanent. That means us too. For me, this is a very beautiful and poetic way of describing and embracing existence.2

Alongside this philosophy of impermanence, Lee’s work explores belonging and identity, our connection to the universe, the interpenetration of art and life, and the reconciliation of opposites. Linda Michael has suggested that Lee’s works ‘internalise viewing in a way that makes us [the viewers] already part of the picture.’3 Michael notes that ‘Lee wants “the viewer to catch sight of something in their own being”’.4 In a similar vein, in a conversation with curator Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, Lee says that ‘The quintessential Zen question is, “what is it in this moment that exists?’”5 She goes on to say that her art practice is ‘a function of the interrogation that Zen requires the curious mind to do.’6 Indeed, we may consider Lee’s artwork to be a form of Zen kōan, a statement or story that provokes thought or doubt and which cannot be resolved solely through the intellect.

Lee’s questions and preoccupations are echoed by our writers in this collection. Danielle O’Leary, Christina Lee, Sue-Lyn Aldrian-Moyle and Denise Woods ponder the bifurcated existence of the children of migrant families in Australia. Susanna Castleden and Caitlin Maling address the materiality of the artworks and what this means to fellow artists. Paul Gardner and Per Henningsgaard mimic Lee’s flung ink and bronze in the form of words and sentences. Qian Gong (in a bi-lingual poem) and Rachel Robertson write in conversation with artworks formed by the elements. Christina Chau and Anne Ryden play with ideas of replica and originality, memory and vision. The experience of this exhibition is reflected and refracted through twelve different minds as we offer this collection of creative writing in the spirit of Lindy Lee’s flung ink and bronze: after contemplation, following the line of the ink as it falls.

1 Lee, L and Macgregor, E A (2020). A Conversation Between Lindy Lee and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor,

Moon in a Dew Drop catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, p13. 2 Lee, L (2020). The artist in conversation with Peter McKay, Curatorial Manager, Australian Art, and

Ellie Buttrose, Curator, Contemporary Australian Art, 21 February, pp1-2. 3 Michael, L (2001). Three Views of Emptiness, Monash University Museum of Art, pp 9-10. 4 Lindy Lee quoted in Michael, L (2001). Three Views of Emptiness, Monash University Museum of Art, p 10. 5 Lee, L and Macgregor, E A (2020). A Conversation Between Lindy Lee and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor,

Moon in a Dew Drop catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, p15. 6 Lee, L and Macgregor, E A (2020). A Conversation Between Lindy Lee and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor,

Moon in a Dew Drop catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, p15.

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Art has an extraordinary job. It allows us to reflect on who and what we are, how we’re connected to the world. - Lindy Lee

Lindy Lee in her studio, Sydney, 2014, image courtesy the artist, Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney and Singapore and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, © the artist. Photographer: Lee Nutter.