Maurice Lye - 'Still Lives'
Canaday Gallery, 4th–22nd February 2009
Maurice Lye is a New Zealand photographer who has exhibited since the late 1970s with work included in a number of survey exhibitions, including The Active Eye in 2000. Lye describes himself as a scavenger. Still Lives is made up portraits of sea tulips and trees, and reveals the exquisite strangeness of the natural and man-made world. Lye comments: ‘Daily we are dished up images of celebrities and fashion models. The way they are portrayed leads many people to believe this is all there is to beauty and the only way to have a fulfilling life. Some life forms move to different rhythms. The sea tulips are animals that occasionally wash up on the beaches of southern New Zealand. They are on average about 4-8 cm in length with a stalk attached. On close inspection they have almost human like characteristics. The Tree portraits are of trees that are almost invisible, because they are so common place.’