Liliane Lijn
(b.1939, USA)
Liliane Lijn, born in New York, studied Archaeology at the Sorbonne. Buddhism and Surrealism became early influences, in particular the writings of the poet Antonin Artaud with his focus on ‘awareness’. Becoming friends with Beat Generation poets led Lijn to explore, as early as 1962, the relation between language and light in her kinetic Poem Machines.
From a visionary core, inspired by science, feminine mythology, and eastern philosophies, Lijn combines industrial materials with artistic processes to reinvent the feminine body. She is best known for her work with light and movement and her use of the mythologically feminine form of the cone. Science and myth are transformed and translated from cosmogenic archetypes into drawings, performances, audio-visual and kinetic works.
Internationally exhibited since the 1960s, her works are in numerous collections including Tate, British Museum, V&A and FNAC.
Recent Exhibitions: The Milk of Dreams, 59th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia; Light: Works from Tate’s Collection, ACMI, Melbourne (touring). Radical Software, Mudam, Luxembourg; Electric Dreams, 28 November 2024 – 1 June 2025 Arise Alive, solo survey exhibition at Haus Der Kunst, Munich, 5.4.24 – 22.9.24 touring to mumok, Vienna, 11.15.24 – 5/4/2025 and Tate St. Ives: 24 May – 5 October 2025. A monograph will accompany Arise Alive. She has lived in London since 1966 and is represented by Sylvia Kouvali Gallery, London/Piraeus.
The wearable art pieces by Liliane Lijn recall nature and its intimate essence.
I would like the ornaments I make to be reminders of the essence of our planet’s life. Volcanic magma, clods of earth, meteorites, lunar rocks, my sculptures to wear are essentially reminders of our origin.
Up until then, I had mostly worked with new industrial materials and techniques but with wax, I returned to a more traditional medium, used in sculpture for millennia. During this period, I happened, one day to playfully mould a handful of still very hot wax around my wrist. Somehow, the type of wax and the exact temperature at which I began to shape it resulted in something that looked very much like a clod of earth. I thought it would be interesting to make a piece of jewellery that would have such a raw look.
Discover more – Interview with the artist here
