John Lyall -

The old becomes new again, the analogue swings digital and back. The cibachrome becomes glossy screen. Lyalls work continues to feed on, and re-use its components, here a figuration of the alternative Aotearoa national bird, the moa. [read essay]

Flee, Urgently | Meccano moa in ‘Moa, Moa, Moa.’ At Whitespace Gallery, 2015. 350mm x 250mm
LED Moa, it walks | Digital photograph of programmable LED Moa. LED strings, wire, cable ties. 2200mm x 1300mm
Moas and Mad Dog | Drawings. Oilstick on black gesso. Both 1000mm x 650mm /600mm x 600mm
Looking Through the Door, Sad Blue | Digital photograph of two Meccano Moas, 450mm x 300mm ea
Grunge, Red Stripe | Digital photograph of framed drawing. Oil stick on black gesso,1000mm x 650mm
Brassy Moa Skull and Clockwork Footprints | Found b&w web image of skull Psykopainted. 130mm x 300mm Photograph of clockwork train rails. 200mm x 300mm
My Father’s Meccano, Shimmering | Digital photo of Meccano Moa silhouette 1800mm tall x 800mm wide
Tread Plate Blues, Lockdown | Digital photograph, of a framed Cibachrome photograph, 400mm x 280mm Digital photograph, of a framed Cibachrome photograph, 400mm x 280mm
Moas and Saint Pandemica | Drawings / Decommissioned Saint bought in Cambodia 1000mm x 650mm ea
Mood Indigo, [ Sad ] | Digital photograph of Meccano Moa, 450mm x 300mm
Descent Descant, Fluffy, [ with Wave ] | Photograph of drawing, oil stick and fluorescent ink on black gesso. 1000mm x 650mm
Backwards Look, Metallic | Digital photograph of Meccano Moa, 450mm x 300mm
Dots, Moa and More Dots | White pen, white pencil, white marker pen on tan paper. 000mm x 650mm
Disassembled Vitrine, With Ladder | Digital photograph, of a framed Cibachrome. original photograph in Auckland Museum, 900mm x 600mm
My Moa, Digital Hoax | Photograph of drawing from photograph of computer game sprite, ‘Sim Earth’. Oilstick and marker pen on black gesso.310mm x 200mm

John’s work explores a manic dialogue between nature and culture, between the real and the artificial, the wild and the hyper-feral. The ostensible subject here, the Moa, a relic of a bird is unable to fly and already extinct.
[read essay]