Nancy D Lane

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

Found object assemblage wall sculpture in a drawer created from bent forks, tongs, plastic and sea glass.

A shout-out to Clean Up Australia’s many, many communities taking action. They are great examples of typifying What’s Next for Earth’s last art call, ‘Review, Assessment and Action.’

Their website says, “Clean Up Australia inspires and mobilizes communities to improve and conserve our environment, eliminate litter, and end waste. Over 21 million Aussies have participated in Clean Up Australia activities and events. What was started over thirty years ago by an ‘average Australian’ who had a simple idea to make a difference in his own backyard has now become the nation’s largest community-based environmental event.” 

Created at River Studios, managed by Creatives Spaces for the City of Melbourne.
©
2024
  • Nancy D Lane

Walkaholic

found object assemblage
45x55x13cm
2023

I created this work-in-a-drawer last year for my solo exhibition at the Belconnen Arts Centre in Canberra on the theme of what various local residents were doing to help sustain the environment and prevent global warming. However, it serves equally well for what we need to do as a community and systemically to develop greater resilience in transport. This process was illustrated very clearly in a recent post by Brenna Quinlan.

Richard Heinberg in the Think Resilience course from the Post Carbon Institute states that in building transport resilience, we need to reduce the need for transporting people by designing our cities better for walking and bicycling.
©
2023
  • Nancy D Lane

It’s Getting Hotter, Too, at Uluru

found object assemblage wall sculpture created from plywood, black plastic, rusted metal, keys, and clear plastic parts from a chandelier.
35x57cm

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The focus of this artwork is a glittering ‘sun’ symbolizing the increased global warming caused by burning fossil fuels, felling forests, and intensive livestock farming. This contrasts with the activities of Indigenous Australians, who have cared for Country for over 65,000 years. Their diverse environmental activities have contributed to the retention of biodiversity, improved landscape health, and climate change mitigation. ‘Uluru’, an iconic geological formation identified with Australia’s Indigenous people, has ‘guides’ and visitors’ at its base. This suggests our need to collaborate to share knowledge and build community resilience as a ‘key’ to combating the climate crisis.

It was encouraging that at COP28, Australian Minister for Climate and Energy Chris Bowen stated: “At the heart of the action on climate change must be profound respect for those people who have cared for our respective lands for millennia—Indigenous people across the world.” He also recommended including First Nations people in the Australian government’s response to the climate crisis.

As Richard Heinberg stated, Building community resilience starts with people…. But it ultimately has to come to grips with the infrastructure that enables any community to function.” And I would add: Not just to function, but to survive. Australia’s First Nations peoples are a living example of having built community resilience.
©
2023
  • Nancy D Lane

Detained

Wall sculpture created from parts of locks, keys, barbed wire, grid, washers and wood, all found on the streets of Melbourne
14 x 37 cm

In his Think Resilience course, Richard Heinberg states: “Capital inevitably tends to reproduce itself and become more consolidated and centralized over time…. Over all, resources and wealth tend to flow from poor nations to rich nations.”

Currently there are increasing numbers of desperate people from poor nations seeking to better their lives and the lives of their families by following the money—seeking to enter developed countries through whatever means possible. They are taking extreme risks to cross into southern Europe and Australia on overcrowded boats, or into the US on foot over the Mexican border.

Sadly, some perish in the attempt, and even more are detained once they reach the ‘promised’ land. Social justice requires expanding the commons so that resources of a country are accessible to all its members, and people no longer have to endanger their lives or their freedom to improve their standard of living.
©
2023
  • Nancy D Lane

Globalized Overreach

found object assemblage sculpture created from pieces of metal mounted on rubber and linoleum, all found on the streets of Melbourne.

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My conceptualization of globalization, based on the Think Resilience online course from Post Carbon Institute, shows the pursuit of efficiency (machinery cogs and wheels), workers treated as machinery components (the three ‘heads’), and reliance on international transport (swirling lines on the lino).

How best to suggest that over-globalization is detrimental to society and the Earth? I’ve tried four versions: a half frame pointing upwards and leftwards to a void; a rocket-shaped frame hurtling towards emptiness left and right; a green screen, implying the limits to Earth’s resources; and the blue, oddly shaped framing suggesting the ‘stumbling blocks’ of globalization. Which makes the point best for you?
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2023
  • Nancy D Lane

We Are All Connected to the Earth

Found object assemblage sculpture created in 24 hours

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Building resilience in the face of climate crisis depends on community. By using natural and manufactured objects gathered from streets and beaches, I have tried to express our relationships to the earth and to each other. The basalt suggests the earth and its systems; the nuts and bolts, people comprising community. The twisted wire symbolizes the interconnectedness required to collectively build a better future.
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2022
  • Nancy D Lane

Lest Water Cease to Flow

67x90cm found object assemblage wall sculpture created from water-stained, rusted and corroded materials found on the streets of Melbourne.

This work suggests the desertion and collapse of a once mighty city, due to human overuse and misuse of water resources that can no longer support the population.
©
2021
  • Nancy D Lane

Untitled

Assemblage, digital photograph

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This work addresses the dominant belief system in today’s society that humanity will prosper only through continuous economic growth. We need a change in mindset — a circuit breaker. The many different nuts and washers affixed to the circuit board suggest that each of us, in our own way, can interrupt this non-stop cycle of production and consumption. We are capable of developing ways of living that are more thoughtful and creative, and less resource-intensive, to avoid climate catastrophe.
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2021
  • Nancy D Lane

City on Two Pallets

Created from wood, metal, tile, and plastic found on the streets and in builders skips in Melbourne.
94x206x16cm

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In response to our exploitative, fossil-fueled infrastructure, our society has evolved a social structure dominated by urbanization. As a by-product, we have created an economy dependent on incessant growth in manufacturing and consumerism.

This work decries such growth as necessary to urban development and redevelopment. It envisions a city where renewal does not require demolition, landfill and use of new materials, but rather, restoration of existing buildings and reclaiming and repurposing of used construction materials. Although it would take effort and political will, our cities could be reimagined sustainably.
©
2021
  • Nancy D Lane

Loop-the-loop

Nine views of a brooch made from a hunk of cement and bent wire found on the streets of Melbourne.

Our planet is on an energy roller coaster, looping the loop at breakneck speed, to what end? Energy is what living things need to survive, but we need it in forms that do not devastate our planet. I have just started the free Think Resilience course from The Post Carbon Institute. Recommended!
©
2021
  • Nancy D Lane

Reach for the Moon

Found objects assemblage
48x38x6cm

The lower section of this work depicts the pollution of the Earth’s atmosphere based on climate inaction – dependence on fossil fuels, an increase in carbon dioxide, further global warming. In this scenario, we will eventually reach our planetary limit, a calamitous tipping point.

In contrast, the upper section imagines mountains, a cityscape, and, importantly, an individual reaching skyward. We cannot wait passively; climate action must start with each of us. We must ‘reach for the moon’ by living sustainably ourselves, inspiring others to join us, and encouraging the government to act in the interests of the future.

I am committed to sustainability in my art practice. I created this work from boards, orange tiles, rusted sheet metal, and miscellaneous pieces of rusted metal, including rods, bolts, spark plugs, and springs, all found on the streets of Melbourne.

Created at RiverStudios, which is managed by @creativespaces for the @cityofmelbourne. My found object wall sculptures and brooches are available from @incube8r Gallery, now online.
©
2020
  • Nancy D Lane

Articles from the MAHB

Revolving Doors – Reflecting on the Year 

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