MAURICE LYE – IMBY (in my back yard) – 24 March-17 April, 2026

“My back yard has been a repository for over 40 years of collecting ‘found object treasures’. Death and life cycles are a constant theme in my work. Many of the plants in my backyard are left to go wild. Naturally going to seed and rambling.”

Maurice Lye’s home and garden are full and constantly being added to. He is attracted to wear and tear, to objects that have a history. Some of the objects were brought home with the intention of photographing them, others he just liked. Noticing things, is an essential part of photography as is the observation of light. “Using natural light from the sun is a core value to my approach to recording the world around me. About 20 years ago this need to use sunlight steered me towards using Cyanotype as a means to make photographic prints.  The simplicity and hands on nature of the process also appealed greatly.”

He played around with the Cyanotype process for years and came up with something that suits his aesthetic. While photographic, these works don’t reflect reality in a documentary sense. With impenetrable darks, they come across as impressions of memory and are tactile, skin or cloth-like, physical. Size makes a difference.  “I decided to make large prints, from large negatives, from a large home-made camera. I wanted the whole process to be able to be done without any use of electricity if I chose to.”

He taped together nine sheets of 8” x 10” photo paper to achieve the size he was after and loaded it into his large, very manual camera, with the subject placed in front, then opened the shutter. After the photograph had been taken, the paper was un-taped and developed in his dark room (a shed in his back yard). Once processed and dried, the nine sheets were taped back together and placed face-down on the Cyanotype coated watercolour paper. They were then clamped together under a sheet of glass and left in full sunshine for many hours before being processed. Although editionable, the prints are inevitably different as weather varies the results.

The smaller black and white prints use a similar approach, they were taken as exposures directly onto photographic paper, which Lye then processed and reversed to achieve one-off positive prints.  “I like to think the concept, process and finished image are tightly interwoven.”

This is a tantalizingly mysterious exhibition that generates more questions than answers and stimulates curiosity in the viewer. An exploration.

Dedicated to Ben.

ARTISTS TALK: Sat 11 April, 11am

ARTIST TALK:
Join us on Saturday 11 April at 11am, free entry, all welcome