Marne Lucas
Image sourced from ‘Haute Flash' an experimental IRT film by Marne Lucas (2018).
An infrared thermal video still as a digital photograph, depicting a woman in the hormonal transition of menopause, with their heat signatures visible.
Haute Flash, infrared video, trt 6:17, ©2018 Marne Lucas
'Deep See: Thallasic Spirits', 2022, 20 x 30 inches, genuine silver leaf, ink, watercolor, Canson photo rag paper.
'Wet Passengers Cave 2' Marne Lucas, 2022, 20 x 30 inches, unique, archival pigment print, metal leaf, watercolor, ink, on Canson photo rag paper.
'Yoniversal Birth', 2022, Archival Pigment print on Canson Platine paper, 20 x 30 inches.
'The Violet Hours', 2022, 20 x 30 inches, genuine silver leaf, ink, watercolor, assemblage on Canson Photo rag paper.
'Primordialscapes', Archival Pigment print on Canson Platine paper, 2021, 18 x 24 inches.
A digital collage of black and white infrared thermal video stills as a photograph depicting a goddess figure surrounded by primordial landscape features, shot on Maui, Hawaii.
'Wai Wahine, Why', Marne Lucas, 2021, 20 x 16 inches framed, unique, archival pigment print, copper leaf, watercolor, ink, on Canson photo rag paper.
'Offering', Marne Lucas, 2021, 20 x 30 inches framed (edition of 5), archival pigment print, 24 karat gold leaf on Canson photo rag paper.
'Soul Dummies', Marne Lucas, 2021, 16 x 20 inches framed, edition 2 of 5, archival pigment print, 24 karat gold leaf on Canson photo rag paper.
'Incident Energy', 4 channel infrared video installation. ©2013 Marne Lucas and Jacob Pander.
https://vimeo.com/119734456
'Infinity Snake'. Cast iron. 24" x 11 x 4".
Lucas made works that relate to her 'Bardo' project about end-of-life care while on a Kohler artist residency in cast iron and porcelain foundry.
'Tree Conch', cast brass, ©2016 Marne Lucas. Arts/Industry residency in cast iron/brass foundry at Kohler Co. factory.
https://vimeo.com/191047189
'Transfleurs', vitreous porcelain, dimensions variable, 2016, Marne Lucas
Made at an Arts/Industry residency in Pottery at Kohler Co. factory.
'Warlord Sun King'
© 2009 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
Tanning bed, grow lights, crystals, rocks, live plants, moss, coconut, meteorite, recycling, motor, photography, mixed media. Dimensions variable.
-Installation view: an extravagant Eco-Baroque chandelier, transcending visual decadence in a multi-sensory atmosphere.
'Eco Baroque: Universal Variance'
Detail of a public art installation at PSU Smith Memorial Student Union.
© 2009 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
'Warlord Sun King'
© 2009 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
Detail of chandelier, rocks & crystals.
From 'Warlord Sun King: The Genesis of Eco-Baroque'.
'Eco-Baroque in Ikh Gazriin Chuluu Gobi'
Land Art Mongolia 360° Biennial
© 2012 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
-Gold, silver and copper leaf was applied to the rocks; alluding to the minerals currently mined in Mongolia.
Detail: 'Eco-Baroque in Ikh Gazriin Chuluu Gobi'
Land Art Mongolia 360° Biennial
© 2012 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
-Gold, silver and copper leaf was applied to the rocks; alluding to the minerals currently mined in Mongolia.
'Eco-Baroque in Ikh Gazriin Chuluu Gobi'
Land Art Mongolia 360° Biennial
© 2012 Bruce Conkle & Marne Lucas
-Gold, silver and copper leaf was applied to the rocks; alluding to the minerals currently mined in Mongolia.
Marne Lucas (she/her/they) is a multidisciplinary artist based in New York whose practice spans photography, video, sculpture and collaboration. Lucas works at the intersection of art, feminism, and health, using conceptual overlaps: life’s energy, the environment, the body, mortality and transformation. A self-taught artist, Marne’s investigations are informed by the events and emotions of the community around her, and inspired by the Dharma Art and Social Practice movements, social activism, and the End of Life Doula and palliative care movements; framed by a personal mythology on the meaning of creativity. Lucas has collaborated with artists, choreographers, dancers, musicians, art directors, activist groups, sex workers, health care and LGBTQIA non profits, and the public at large.
An infrared video pioneer, Lucas uses heat-sensitive imaging technology in the ‘Transmundane’ series to reference the magic and fragility of human existence and transport the viewer to an “otherworld” space within the framework of art and science. ‘Transmundane’ is a series of infrared thermal (IRT) video, photography and 2D works that frame the luminous energy of the human body, so that one may sense that we are truly beings of light. In stark black and white experimental films and digital photography Lucas has filmed the emotions and events of human life cycles, landscapes and water conservation, a live hospital birth, the hormonal change of Menopause, and implied death and transformation.
Surveillance cameras and rifle scopes are the means of digital image capture for this surreal aesthetic. Thermal imaging details subtle, actual surface temperature changes in the body and inanimate objects, where heat appears white and cold becomes black, as visible changes are in real time. Objects, landscapes and people have seemingly “negative film” qualities, possessing glowing transparency while maintaining surface reflections. The eerie beauty of heat signatures occurring around and within us is arresting, one may sense our ancient stellar origins. As Carl Sagan said “we are made of star stuff.” To witness our own energy is to experience the magic of the transmundane- that which lies in the celestial and beyond.
Lucas exhibits nationally and internationally at Plaxall Gallery (NYC), The Brand Library (Los Angeles), PICA (Oregon), Fremantle Arts Centre (Perth AU), Space Plus (Lincoln, U.K), Peltz Gallery (London), Municipal Museum of Penafiel (Portugal) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Spain). Marne presented at the international art and science conferences FEMeeting, Lisbon, Portugal (2019), and Taboo-Transgression-Transcendence in Art & Science (TTT), Vienna/Online (2020), and Malta (2023). Lucas received UMEZ Arts Engagement grants in 2022, 2021, 2018 administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and participated in a 2016 Arts/Industry artist residency (Foundry, Pottery Divisions) at the Kohler Co. (Wisconsin), the 2012 Land Art Mongolia 360 Biennial and Residency, and a 2012 CentralTrak, UT Dallas (Texas). Marne served as URAM board member (2018-2019) for The Nest, a community health clinic by Harlem United.