Lisette Forsyth

• Artist Statement
  • The art of my life
    What people do has become the inspiration for my art. When I moved into a working-class area of Cape Town, what the people were doing there to survive became the source of my art while their characters became my inspiration.
    During the ongoing turmoil over a minimum wage, I came across a 1956 Work Ledger and I painted workers on pages from it. This resulted in a dialogue, between the people illustrated in the works and the authoritarian rules and procedures in the document.
    The resultant and growing feelings of social responsibility also led me scavenge the material with which and on which these people worked and out of this came what I call transmutation.
    I take the discarded materials of modern work and transmute their surfaces into artefacts with a powerful appeal to current artistic sensibilities. Scarred wood, rusted steel, battered metal and builder’s planks are all grist to my grinder, saw and paint brush. The story of each piece is transmutation, the outcome, I hope, is enchantment.
    I believe that the dialogue I initiate in my work starts a chain reaction; between my thoughts and the subject matter, between the elements in the work – the images, the objects and the background - all integrated and reinforced by the strong binding shadows I invariably include. Crucial to it all is the satisfying dialogue between my art and the viewer, because I believe that our experience of a piece of art is enhanced by our understanding of the values it signifies.
• Biography
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    Lisette studied Graphic Design at The Cape Technikon from 1989 – 1991 and graduated with a Diploma, majoring in photography and printmaking. She has worked in many fields all over Europe and Australia before coming home and setting up her own studio in Woodstock.
    
    Lisette has exhibited widely with solo and group shows across South Africa as well as internationally: she was a 2007 Vuleka finalist.
    
    Selected Exhibitions:
    
    
    
    
    2019
    Solo exhibition LAND, at StateoftheART Cape Town
    
    2018
    Harlem Fine Arts Show (HFAS) in New York
    
    2017
    SAADA art show with Holden Manz
    Group Exhibition: 'UNITLED|SPRING' at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
    
    2016
    SAADA art show with Holden Manz
    Group Exhibition: 'Poudly South African' at Studio Dylan Thomas, Cape Town
    Group Exhibition with East Side Studios, Cape Town
    BRKLYN Spring Exhibition, Cape Town
    
    2015
    Solo Exhibition: ‘Nothing in India’ at Studio Dylan Thomas, Cape Town
    Solo Exhibition: ‘Love they Neighbour’ at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
    Art and antique expo at the Look Out, W&A Waterfront
    
    2014
    Group Exhibition: ‘Ladies First’, Galerie von Braunbehrens, Munich, Germany
    Solo Exhibition: 'A Reflection Of Us' at StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
    Solo Exhibition: ‘Who’s looking at who’ at Rust and Vrede Gallery
    Group Exhibition: ‘Music and Lyrics’ at Rust and Vrede
    
    Works donated for Ukuthemba Child foundation are auctioned by Graham Norton, resulting in sales to Mr Norton.
    
    2013
    Solo exhibition: An honest day’s work, Studio Tonic, Cape Town
    
    2012
    Part of the art walk ,Art week in Observatory  and Woodstock , resulting in an ongoing relationship with the Jeanneta Blignaut Art Consultancy, Spier.
    
    2011
    Group exhibition: Pin Hole at Haas, Cape Town
    
    
    
    
• Interview
  • What is your favourite film of all time?
    Each decade has it’s own film: the 80s The Outsiders; 90s Jesus of Motreal; 00s Little Miss Sunshine; and 2010 District 9.
    
    What music are you currently listening to and why?
    Bon Ivor because its easy listening and beautiful. When I am in the studio I listen to Fine Music radio, it is relaxing , undemanding has very little advertising. The long pieces help sustain a train of thought and it is also a way to keep in touch with what is going on culturally.
    Most recently Listening to YO YO MAR and LP .
    
    Which living artists do you most admire and why?
    Paul Edmunds, his work is clever and original.
    
    Which deceased artist do you most admire and why?
    Brett Whitely because of his loose style and innovative use of materials.
    
    Which exhibition that you have visited made the greatest impact on you and why?
    Harry Wichat at the Smelik Stokking Galleries in Amsterdam. I loved his loose brush stroke and use of colour – it could also have been the hash chocolate.
    Most recent exhibition that made an impact was work of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye in Munich, her use of colour. Stone cold sober.
    
    What is the question you get asked most frequently about your work and how do you answer it?
    Question I get asked most is where do I find my surfaces. I scavenge.
    
    What/ who inspired you to be an artist?
    My Father, when I asked what I should do after leaving school he suggested I do what makes me happy.
    
    Can you tell us about where you make your art and what, if any, the significance this location has.
    I have a studio in Woodstock, an industrial part of Cape Town. I feel a sense of productivity in the air. I also find the people that live and work here have a style and grace despite their limited resources,every move languid and rhythmic. The weathered and graffitied buildings are also an ever changing inspiration.
    
    What do you like most about being an artist?
    To have an outlet for my creative energy.
    
    What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
    Seeing a commission piece bring tears of joy.
    
    What are your plans for the coming year?
    I am working on an exhibition called LAND for February at StateoftheART. An exhibition in Portugal on a series I did there. Also to continue experimenting.
    
• Video