Marcus Lyon
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British, born 1965
Projects/Portfolios
BRICS (2008-2010)
Introduction
In 2008, a watershed was crossed and the world saw the irreversible shift from a global majority of rural dwellers to a new army of urban residents. Mass urbanisation trends predict that the world’s urban population will double in the coming 40 years. The cities of the developing world will account for 95% of that growth. These are the megacities of the BRIC economies, the urban giants of Brazil, Russia, India and China. These people-magnets draw in rural workers with the promise of higher wages and a better quality of life, but the delicate balance between expanding population and limited physical space defines the human condition of these powerhouses. The evolution of these urban spaces defines today’s global economy. In 2001, Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs first coined the term BRICs, accurately predicting that these 4 economies would drive future global growth. Today these 4 countries account for 25% of the world’s land mass and 41% of its population. In 2025 the BRIC economies will have created at least another 200m consumers with per annum incomes over $ 10,000. By 2050 the BRICs will eclipse the combined economies of Europe and America. Whichever way it is examined the megacities of the emerging markets are the defining human environments of our time.
EXODUS (2010-2011)
Introduction
Exodus is an exploration of the most significant migrations of the early 21st Century. As the ability of humans, goods and services to circumnavigate the planet increases exponentially we are left disconnected from a simple view of our common identity. Indeed, as our economic and geo-political differences intensify, the unstoppable movement and expansion of actual and digital assets challenge the power of the individual in society, the state and corporations to control opinions, actions and environments. Exodus provokes questions concerning the biggest changes in contemporary society through large-scale representations of the key themes that influence globalisation in the modern world.
TIMEOUT (2014-)
Introduction
Timeout explores mass behaviour in a world where the search for safety, sustenance and shelter has taken on a secondary role. As the billion planet dwellers that no longer need to service their basic needs search for meaning they turn to another basic human instinct: exploration. Indeed, as our desire for escape intensifies, we unleash an unstoppable quest for release through travel and adventure. Whether through budget airlines or the mega rich’s super yachts, the human race defines its modern existence through endeavoring to conquer the natural rhythms of the earth in a search for redemption from work through recreation.
Galeria Tempo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Inception Gallery, Paris, France
The Glassworks, London, United Kingdom
FLOWERS, Marcus Lyon, The Glassworks, London, 2000
TUNA, Marcus Lyon, The Glassworks, London, 1996
NIÑOS, Marcus Lyon, The Glassworks, London, 1992
Artist Statement
My early work took me to the slums and ghettos of the developing world to explore issues surrounding street children and child labour. I was then, and remain now, inspired by the resilience and adaptive skills of humanity at the edge of existence. The ability en mass, against all the odds, to negotiate the chaos of changing environments left a deep and lasting mark on my visual mind. And thus my practice for twenty-five years has centred on a search for meaning in our global mass behaviours.
As a witness to the shift of rural dwellers to a new army of urban residents and the migration of power from the old economies of the north and west to the new of the east and south, it became clear to me that the urban giants of the emerging economies were the defining spaces of our time. Indeed, these cities will account for ninety five per cent of urban growth in the next decades. In one, Megacities, and the processes that feed them, are both a saviour to millions of desperately poor people, the engines of growth of the global economy and potential masters of our destruction: they are the most significant change factor in global poverty reduction and innovation but also insatiable centres of consumption and waste.
Emotionally and environmentally these mass ideas, actions, movements of people, production processes, and the titans of political and consumer power that house them, are so huge that no single image can define their influence. So I have endeavoured to create new visual languages within which I can communicate a deeper truth. The result: BRICS, EXODUS, Stadia and TIMEOUT depict landscapes without horizons, built from a myriad of perspectives, each one familiar to the inhabitants of these environments and yet intriguingly new: mirroring the multiple patterns of migration that feed these homage’s to the human will to conquer and adapt in the name of the future.
Marcus Lyon (b. 1965) is a British artist. His works and publications are held in both private and international collections including the Art Institute of Chicago and the Arts Council of Great Britain. He has been commissioned and exhibited globally. Born and raised in rural Britain, Lyon read Political Science at Leeds University, Leadership at Harvard Business School and Performance Measurement at the Kennedy School of Government. His early working life with Amnesty International in Latin America was the inspiration for his twenty-five year exploration of the issues at the heart of globalisation.
In the early 90?s he founded the Glassworks, an award-winning multidisciplinary art studio that acts as a gallery, exhibition venue and centre of excellence for commissioned and original art. As a portrait artist he has photographed a diverse range of public figures from Queen Elizabeth II, to Bill Nighy and the last four British Prime Ministers. His images have won numerous awards and nominations including the B&H Gold, Agfa Photographer of the Year, Prix Pictet 2012 & 2013, a D&AD Silver and five AOP’s. He has created extensive bodies of work around the subjects of development and sport, with particular focus on the built environment. The early 21st century saw his work move from the micro to the macro with the formation of the large scale BRICS, EXODUS and Hinterland series: explorations of the megacity and migration in the modern world. In recent years he has undertaken significant collaborative commissions producing large-scale imagery in the sports/science/art arena, most notably his Stadia and Optogenome series. His current body of work, TIMEOUT, explores the recreation activities that redefine the relationship of man and nature in an age where shelter, sustenance and safety are assured for so many.
Outside of the art world Lyon is a determined social entrepreneur and an active public speaker on both photography and development. In the wider photography community he is an ambassador for The Photographer’s Gallery and Photovoice and the Chairman of the Syngenta Open Photography Award. In the not for profit sector he serves as a Non Executive Director of the Somerset House Trust, Founder Ambassador for both Home-Start UK and the global think-tank The Consortium for Street Children. Currently he lives between central London and Brazil with his wife, Bel and their daughter Florence (2010) and son Arthur (2012).
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