Last Word: Elizabeth Ann Macgregor OBE

As the Covid-19 crisis unfolded and we went into lockdown, closing the museum to the public and retreating to working at home, I had to make one of the most difficult phone calls of my career. I had to tell Lindy Lee, with whom I had been working on one of my all too rare curatorial projects for nearly two years, that we had to postpone her show and that I had absolutely no idea when, or indeed if, it would happen.

As an independent organization that generates over 75% of our income from non-government sources, the impact of the restrictions on our income was devasting. Even during the Global Financial Crisis we had managed to keep this income flowing through adept management by the team. Not so this time. Like so many in the hospitality and tourism industry, we fell off a cliff. So not only did I have to tell Lindy about the postponement, but I also had to indicate that it would be impossible for us to commit to the installation costs of the major public artwork for the square in front of the Museum, even if the show did proceed.

Dark days indeed. Lindy responded with typical pragmatism and we decided that we had to keep working on the show and hope that the crisis would not last too long. For me, continuing to work with Lindy kept me sane, as wrestling with endless financial scenarios to cope with the loss of income became my daily reality. When I was finally able to make the decision to present the exhibition as our major show over the summer, so much had changed. The Black Lives Matter movement had erupted, racism against people of Chinese heritage had become more overt, lockdowns across the world had forced people apart from family and friends and the environmental crisis was pushed aside as other priorities to combat the pandemic took precedence. Think Keep Cups! In this new context, Lindy’s exhibition seemed even more pertinent. Her journey to reconcile living between two cultures, her family story of separation and immigration, her exploration of Zen Buddhism with its emphasis on connection, to each other and to cosmos were topics that had gained an additional urgency. To be able to discuss these topics through the extraordinary work of an artist who so beautifully articulates them has been such a joy. A joy that we have seen in the reaction of our visitors who are slowly returning to the Museum, drawn into this mesmerising and absorbing exhibition.

It truly is a show for our times which makes the argument so poetically for the power of art: to help us reconnect, to resolve our differences, to think about the world in a new light.

Thank you Lindy.

Lindy Lee’s “Moon in a Dew Drop” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney until 28 February 2021.

Lindy Lee (left) and Elizabeth Ann Macgregor (right) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Photo credit: Anna Kučera