Dr Noelene Lucas is a Sydney-based video and installation artist with a background in sculpture. Formerly, Noelene was head of the Sculpture Department at the University of Western Sydney. She is a writer and independent curator who worked in Japan, Thailand, USA, Germany, and Finland. She has exhibited in major exhibitions in Australia, Europe and Asia including the National Gallery of Bangkok, Art Gallery of NSW, and National Gallery of Victoria. She was awarded major Australia Council Grants, two AsiaLink residencies in Thailand and two Australia Council Tokyo residencies. These residencies deeply affected her life, art practice and created the foundation for her PhD. Part of Noelene’s video practice is with the Longford Project (with Anna Gibbs, Liz Day and Julie Gough) where she traces her ancestral ties to Longford, Tasmania, linking her family history and Tasmania’s fraught and hidden history.
For decades I have been working with what I consider to be the key issue of our time, the climate crisis. Central to the work are investigations of the land from both environmental and historical perspectives; land, avian life, water quality and the things we overlook in the passage of our daily lives are key. Crucial to these concerns are key Buddhist concepts and my background in sculpture and sculptural installations. Whether I make sculptural forms or video, the interconnection of elements within the installations are fundamental to my artistic practice. In this way, the interconnection of elements serves not only as a formal device but also as an indicator for the interconnectedness of all life. As viewers navigate the space, they become active participants in the work, experiencing the interconnectedness of the work, the space and themselves.