Expressed through sculptural and photographic works, this latest solo exhibition ‘repeating gestures of becoming’ by Charmaine Lyons explores themes of identity, loss, and recovery through a feminist lens. Featuring 700 clay pears, this contemplative and immersive installation is inspired by the ‘The Handless Maiden’, a tale of initiation and endurance, drawn from the feminist writings of Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’.

“In the final throws of making, the repetitive, instinctive gestures of my hands bring the work to a less refined appearance, the pears are lighter, brighter, freer, wilder, becoming more homogenous, yet remaining uniquely individual, with their own scrapes, scratches and scars, inflicted in the processes of transformation, suggestive of my own descent through the initiation of the psyche”

Infused with the natural stains of coffee and tea, the pears take on an organic appearance reminiscent of the environs of ‘la selva subterranea’ – the underground forest – and the visitor becomes enveloped into this underworld of female knowing.

Opening Event: 5.30pm 18 July 2025

Installation Image. Photo Credit: Charmaine Lyons