Created by self-taught artist Carmel De’Lisser, aka Cathartic Brush, The Wintering has transformed the Gallery space at Lighthouse with an organic, immersive installation created from found and recycled materials as a safe space from the hustle and bustle of the festive season.
Carmel uses words, pictures and sculpture to tell stories that explore our natural and spiritual connections to the world and each other. Included in the installation is a den-like structure where adults and children alike can sit and be ‘held’ by the artwork.
“My work is how we connect to the land, how it holds us, how we feel within it, how we can take a space to pause, to breathe, to relax,” explains Carmel.
“The Wintering was born of The Wilding, which was an immersive installation that I did at Coda in Christchurch, and when that finished, we decided that it would take life in a new shape here at Lighthouse as The Wintering.”
Much of The Wilding installation has been broken down and recycled to create new pieces for The Wintering – a sense of moving on that reflects Carmel’s personal journey.
“I was processing some grief, so there were lots of emotions that have been channelled into this, which I think give it a space and a peace and a voice all of its own as well.
“My working name is Cathartic Brush and that came about because I had just finished a cancer journey and my daughter was on her own healing path. Art became a way of kind of processing my thoughts and feelings in a non-verbal way. And the same for my daughter. It was somewhere that not only I was taking respite in, in my creativity while I was making these pieces, but that it would become a space where people can come and do the same, to rest, to exhale.”
The Wintering is a welcome challenge to preconceptions of what can be achieved in the Gallery space. Reflected light, shadows, found objects, twigs, leaves and bark, all play their part, but perhaps what is most striking is the quiet reflection it invites. How does it work?
“Placing the first twig was the hardest part of this piece,” says Carmel. “I’d been playing with shadows, and I knew in my head how wanted things to look but putting that first twig into this big space and wanting to turn it into somewhere that wasn’t just a big white room – that was the hardest thing.”
With no formal training, Carmel works intuitively, feeling her way into her work, guided by gut feeling. Ask her about future plans and, well, they remain as organic as her work…
“I don’t know what will happen to the pieces in The Wintering. I work in flow, and my life can change in 24 hours, so I have no idea is the honest answer. This is a real visceral, soul work to me, it’s who I am. I can’t imagine a life not creating, this is how I process life.
“All of you is welcome in my spaces. I was late diagnosed neurodivergent so my spaces, I hope, hold the kind of space that I always wanted and needed. I hope that everybody will come in and find something in this space that will resonate with them – that everybody feels safe, held.
“And that it’s in this building is special. Lighthouse is all about the arts, I’ve seen many things here, but to have The Wintering here was like, ‘Wow, I get to create my joy in this space!’”
:: The Wintering can be seen, explored and experienced – for free – in the Gallery until Saturday 3 January.
(NC)