Transcendence: the seen and Unseen
Michael Lye
15 February–3 March 2024

Transcendence: the Seen and Unseen explores spiritual and scientific explanations of reality through the quantifying elements beyond the confines of the 3rd Dimension.

This body of work engages within metaphysical, religious, and empirical understandings in navigating complex relationships between realms of the unknown. Following the ‘seen and unseen’ times before, during and after our existence, the work discusses and interplay between soul and science, being and universe, tangible and intangible to derive and acceptance of the unknown.

In questioning the past, present and future, we move past the capacity of a singular time line and focus purely on the scientific and spiritual experiences that are constantly occurring. Though the works may seem isolated, their intrinsic value lies in their interconnectivity between spacial parts to underline our being as both a unique and connected substance of the universe. Sometimes in conflict, contrast and at times harmonious fusion the exhibition directs at the chemistry of each work and the viewers place within the space.

Michael Lye is an Asian-Australian Artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Working in both the digital, painter  and traditional printmaking fields, his work discusses race, philosophical and scientific explorations through the use of playfully abstract and minimalistic formations.

Either blissfully colourful or grotesquely visceral, Lye builds upon his own position as a multi-race artist to discuss the background stereotypes towards minorities in society, whilst focussing on generational displacement and its consequential impacts. These directives follow through Lye’s own practical  discussion of the virtual and analog, spiritual and scientific as a dual dialogue to the fabric of our reality.