With this collection in tow, I brought it to the Midnight Dome,
where I installed my Time Machine; a strange off-the-grid laboratory
which became my home for a few weeks. Built with plexiglas,
aluminum, and chemicals, this shelter adopts a design similar to
Earthship architecture, but rather than environmental sustainability
as its guiding principle, this bubbling chemical structure comes
closer to the absurd inefficiency of many of our modern industrial
pursuits. Powering this machine is a massive, roof-top battery, in
which etching plates and etching acid power an electrolytic cleaning
process to remove the rust from my scavenged artifacts. Once
cleaned, I meticulously etched the markings left by decades of rust
and erosion, forming a kind of topographical map. The result is a
glistening surface that memorializes the artifact’s entire lifespan.
Overlooking the dredge tailings, this machine presents a kind
of prototype for the preservation of degradation. As it stands
now, our most sincere attempts to preserve this era are often
counterproductive, a further erasure or gentrifying of these objects
and spaces, resulting in a kind of nostalgic industrial utopia. With
this project, I attempt to reintroduce the evidence of time, erosion
and labour into the restoration process: the act of polishing bringing
a sharpened awareness to the work that was once performed with
these tools.
Colin Lyons was born in Windsor, Ontario, and grew up in
‘Canada’s original oil boomtown’ of Petrolia, an experience that has
fueled his interests in industrial ruins and sacrificial landscapes. His
recent work fuses printmaking, sculpture, and chemical experiments,
pushing the role of the etching plate beyond its traditional
boundaries. He explores industry through the lens of fragility and
impermanence, considering planned obsolescence and the nature of
what we choose to preserve.
Lyons received his BFA from Mount Allison University (2007) and
MFA in printmaking from University of Alberta (2012). Recent
projects have been presented at The Soap Factory (Minneapolis),
Platform Stockholm (Stockholm), OBORO (Montreal), ARTSPACE
(Peterborough), Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery (Sarnia), Kala Art
Institute (Berkeley), SPACES (Cleveland) and Kamloops Art Gallery
(Kamloops). He currently lives in Hamilton
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