About
I am a freelance arts writer, artist and librarian based in Hobart, predominantly working in site-specific installation, drawing, photography, and more recently, performance art. I hold a PhD in art theory, ‘The Museum as Art: site-specific art in Australia’s public museums’, and my own artwork frequently critiques the politics of art spaces, parodying museum architecture, marketing and display. I create fictional environments or situations in which the viewer becomes an active participant, although not always knowingly. I have long used social media as a responsive engagement tool in installations like Notice of Proposed Development: 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart (Salamanca Arts Centre) (2017). I used the language of bureaucracy, planning and museum marketing to create a pseudo-development proposal that parodied contemporary museum architecture and the art world’s obsession with the ‘unique’.
More recently I’ve focused on a more direct in-person connection, such as my performance An Australian in New York (2018). For the durational performance, I posed as an Australian tourist besotted with New York City. Dressed in a bejeweled baseball cap and an iconic I <3 NYC tee, I engaged commuters walking along a gungy strip of 23rd street using the tourist ‘language’ of the selfie.
I am currently working on a series of performances called Performing the Abels, in which I climb and perform on Tasmania’s Abel Mountains (the 158 Tasmanian mountains that are above 1,100 meters and separated by a drop of at least 150m on all sides). The project seeks to address the gap between artistic representations of the landscape and the experience of being in these stunning environments. It’s impossible to capture the sheer vastness of ancient wilderness in places like the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. I cannot convey the crisp air that catches at the back of my throat as I ascend Mount Jerusalem, nor the gentle rustling of pencil pines, or the trickle of water as it snakes its way from one alpine tarn to the next. It’s not enough to represent the landscape through mimetic means, but I can record my experience of being in the landscape as a temporary visitor.
Art Practice CV
See the writing and research pages for a list of my published articles, conference activity and research.
Education
2013 Doctor of Philosophy, University of Tasmania. ‘The Museum as Art: Site-specific Art in Australia’s Public Museums’. Supervised by Professor Jonathan Holmes and Dr Brigita Ozolins. Examined by Anthony Bond (Art Gallery of NSW), Associate Professor Robert Nelson (Monash University), Associate Professor Rex Butler (Monash University).
2022 Masters of Information Studies (Librarianship), Charles Sturt University. Winner of the University Postgraduate Medal.
2004-07 Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honours (First Class), University of Tasmania (Art & Design Theory, Sculpture).
Solo Exhibitions
2017 Notice of Proposed Development: 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart (Salamanca Arts Centre), Salamanca Arts Centre and online.
2016 #Fanart, Round Room Gallery
2015 Façade, Top Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre.
2014 Museum Patterns, Round Room Gallery, Hobart. Accompanied by an artist book of the same name.
2013 Notice of Proposed Development: 100 Goulburn St, Hobart (Constance ARI), Constance ARI, Hobart.
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024, As a Rock, Salamanca Arts Centre. Curated by Rebecca Holmes.
2022 Finalist, Women’s Art Prize Tasmania.
2022 Photons, Moonah Arts Centre, Hobart. Curated by Jason James.
2021 The Suburbs Project, Rosny Farm Arts Centre, Hobart.
2020 Conglomerate, Q-Bank Gallery, Queenstown, Tasmania.
2019 Finalist, Bay of Fires Art Prize (with Performing the Abels (Mount Jerusalem)), St Helens.
2018 Art in Odd Places, New York City. Curated by Ed Woodham.
2016 Sculpture Trail, Fractangular Arts and Music Festival, Tasmania.
2016 Inappropriate Appropriate Ideas, The Curated Shelf.
2013 The Plimsoll Inquiry, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart.
2013 Investigations, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart.
2013 Friend in Hand, Poobah Gallery, Hobart.
2009 Forced Collaboration, Inflight ARI, Hobart. Collaborative exhibition with Sarah Jones, financed by a Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant.
2006 Canned, IXL Atrium, Hobart. Curated by Angela Griffiths.
2006 Mountain Festival Sculpture Trail, Hobart Rivulet Walk, Curatorial Panel: Jennie Gorringe, John Vella, Philip Watkins (Winner of the Hobart Water Art Prize).
2003 North Sydney Council Art Prize, finalist, work acquired by North Sydney Council.
Selected Curatorial
2015 Five Way Moiré, Round Room Gallery, Hobart.
2009-10 Post, 10% Pending, various locations around Hobart.
2007-09 Guerrilla Gallery I-VI, 10% Pending, various locations, including Mawson’s Place, This is Not Art Festival (Newcastle), The Village (Melbourne), Installed Taste, Hobart.
2008 Geometric Nature, Devonport Regional Gallery, Tasmania.
Selected Grants, Awards and Residencies
2018 City as Site: Performance and Social Interventions, SVA residency, New York City.
2015 Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.
2015 Artsbridge Grant, Arts Tasmania.
2014 Marie Edwards Travelling Scholarship for Art, Craft and Design.
2014 Vita Brown Bursary Bequest Grant, Arts Tasmania.
2012-13 CAST studio residency, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania.
2010 John Davis: Presence, review writing award, NGV Australia. Judged by David Hurlston.
2010 Graduate Scholar Award, Common Ground, 2010 International Arts in Society Conference.
2010 Graduate Research Candidate Conference Fund Scheme, to present at the 2010 International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, Istanbul.
2009 Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant, National Association for the Visual Arts.
2009 Graduate Research Candidate Conference Fund Scheme, to present at the 2009 International Arts in Society Conference, Venice.
2008-12 Australian Postgraduate Award.
2007 Tasmanian Emerging Curator Grant, CAST.
2006 Ignition: National Association for the Visual Arts Prize, National Association for the Visual Arts and the University of Tasmania.
2006 Hobart Water Arts Prize, Mountain Festival Sculpture Trail.
Selected Bibliography
2017 Harper, Andrew. ‘A Model of Satire’, The Mercury, 29 April: 21.
2017 Interview with Firas Massouh about museum architecture and my installation, Notice of Proposed Development: 77 Salamanca Place, Hobart (Salamanca Arts Centre), ABC Radio Hobart, 26 April.
2016 Arts panel, ABC Local Radio, Hobart, 23 March
2015 Harper, Andrew, ‘Warp Recommends’, Warp, February.
2013 Interview with Ryk Goddard on Hobart art spaces, ABC Hobart 1 October 2013.
2013 Harper, Andrew, ‘Lucy Hawthorne’, Warp, September: 25.
2008 Hogarth, Megan, ‘Seeing Nature in a New Light’, The Advocate, August 16: 36.
2007 Hopper, Jennifer, ‘10% Pending’, The Program, Radio Interview airing throughout October on Triple J.
2007 Hopper, Jennifer, ‘10% Pending’, The Program, 30th September, http://www.theprogram.net.au/featuresSub.asp?id=5333
2006 'Artnotes', Art Monthly Australia.
2006 Naidoo, Meryl, ‘Shaping the great outdoors’, The Mercury, May 26: 15.
2006 Martain, Tim, ‘Alfresco art unveiled along Rivulet’, The Mercury, March 31: 9.
Community Involvement
2017-current Peer, Australia Council for the Arts
2013-14 Board Member, Constance ARI.
2007-2012 Committee Member, Plimsoll Gallery.
2007-2010 10% Pending Artist Run Initiative, co-founding committee member.
2006-07 Committee Member, Entrepot Gallery.
2006 Art School Student Representative, University of Tasmania.
2005 President, Tasmanian School of Art Sculpture Society.
Contact:
hawthorne.lucy
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[at]gmail etc. etc.
Twitter, Instagram and Flickr:
@stealthpooch