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Lindy Lee: Ouroboros

2024

Lindy Lee at UAP Company, Brisbane, 2022. Images by Josef Ruckli

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“The Ouroboros will become a beacon. Daytime or nighttime, it's going to pulse with light and energy.”

Lindy Lee

Work is underway on Ouroboros, an immersive, public sculpture by Australian artist Lindy Lee.

With a practice spanning more than four decades, Brisbane-born Lee uses her work to explore her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism – philosophies that see humanity and nature as inextricably linked.

Ouroboros is based on the ancient image of a snake eating its own tail, seen across cultures and millennia, it is the symbol of eternal return, of cycles of birth, death and renewal. Located at the entrance of the National Gallery, people will be able enter the ‘mouth’ of the sculpture and walk into the curved space to experience darkness that is illuminated by light beams emanating from the hundreds of perforations on its surface.

During the day its highly-polished mirror surface will reflect the imagery of the floating world, the transience of passers-by, cars, birds in flight, and passing clouds. At night the Ouroboros will be lit internally, returning its light to the world.

The sculpture is being fabricated at the UAP Foundry in Brisbane and will measure around four metres high and weigh approximately 13 tonnes.

Ouroboros will also be a sustainable sculpture – incorporating recycled materials, maximising renewable energy, and work to minimise its carbon impact, helping make it one of Australia's first sustainable works of public art.

Lindy Lee: Ouroboros was commissioned to celebrate the National Gallery’s 40th anniversary in 2022 and is due to be completed in 2024.

WATCH

Behind the scenes making of Ouroboros

Making Lindy Lee's Ouroboros

01:17

Introducing Ouroboros with Lindy Lee

Lindy Lee: Ouroboros

02:00
A screenshot from a video of artist Lindy Lee reaching out and touching the holed surface of one of her large silver sculptures

IMAGES

Lindy Lee at UAP Company, Brisbane, 2022. Images by Josef Ruckli

Lindy Lee and Nick at UAP Company, Brisbane, 2022. Images by Josef Ruckli

Ouroboros details at UAP Company, Brisbane, 2022. Images by Josef Ruckli

Lindy Lee and Nick at UAP Company, Brisbane, 2022. Images by Josef Ruckli

A digital rendering of a large sculpture sitting in the landscape outside the national gallery building

Lindy Lee, Ouroboros, 2024, (artist's interpretation), courtesy the artist, UAP and Sullivan+Strumpf, © Lindy Lee

A digital rendering of a large sculpture sitting in the landscape outside the national gallery building

Lindy Lee, Ouroboros, 2024, (artist's interpretation), courtesy the artist, UAP and Sullivan+Strumpf, © Lindy Lee

A digital rendering if a large outdoor sculpture at night time. Light from inside the sculpture are glowing like stars

Lindy Lee, Ouroboros, 2024, (artist's interpretation), courtesy the artist, UAP and Sullivan+Strumpf, © Lindy Lee

A digital rendering of the inside of a large sculpture, from the perspective os someone standing inside, looking outwards

Lindy Lee, Ouroboros, 2024, (artist's interpretation), courtesy the artist, UAP and Sullivan+Strumpf, © Lindy Lee

A digital rendering of the inside of a large sculpture, from the perspective os someone standing inside, looking outwards

Lindy Lee, Ouroboros, 2024, (artist's interpretation), courtesy the artist, UAP and Sullivan+Strumpf, © Lindy Lee

Artist Lindy Lee sitting outdoors with a maquette of her sculpture Ouroboros

Artist Lindy Lee with a maquette of Ouroboros, 2021, courtesy the artist, photo by Zoe Wesolowski-Fisher

More on Lindy Lee


  • Reaching for the stars
    Lindy Lee

    Woman artist sitting on her studio floor holding a sculpture maquette

    Commissioned to make her first immersive public sculpture for the Gallery's 40th anniversary, we sat down with Lindy Lee to talk art, life and loss.

    Read Time 17 minutes
  • Story

    Lindy Lee & Nell

    Two women are smiling for a photo together. One is sitting on a rock and the other is cross legged on the ground. They are in a Chinese garden within a city

    Mentoring and Buddhism have played a large part in the friendship between artists Lindy Lee and Nell, writes Georgina Safe.

    Read Time 15 minutes
  • Lindy Lee in Know My Name

    Black and white photo of artist Lindy Lee working on a maquette of her sculpture Ouroboros in her studio
  • Video

    Lindy Lee 'The tyranny and liberation of distance'

    Published 15 March 2019

    Artist Lindy Lee discusses her work displayed in Infinite Conversations: Asian-Australian Artistic Exchange at the National Gallery in 2018.

    01:31

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